From the 1-18-2011 press conference...
Al Davis quotes from Raiders press conference
Chronicle Staff Report
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
(01-18) 23:08 PST ALAMEDA -- Some of the notable quotes from Al Davis Tuesday, when he announced the hiring of Hue Jackson as head coach. The quotes are from his news conference and from interviews after the conference.
The first batch of quotes appeared in Wednesday's paper.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"(Jackson) came in, he was given the authority to run with the offense. He met some opposition from time to time, but he took it and ran with it and we scored points."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"(JaMarcus Russell is) a good person, but he's got personal problems, and I decided that it was time that we were not going to fight it anymore. ... JaMarcus hurt. Anytime you lose a first-round draft choice it hurts. But it's over."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Anybody who's watched (Darren McFadden) practice would say the guy's got greatness on him, but he's gotta stay well."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"(Jackson) was like, what's his name? Gruden. Gruden was like that - feisty - he could lead the defense. They are different, definitely. ... But on that particular thing they are very similar.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Tom (Cable) had been told earlier in his career that he could have been fired without pay for the wrath he brought on the Raider organization."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"All of this stuff (Cable was doing) goes a long way against my wishes, against my way of living, against my life and against the Raider way, and I just wasn't going to take it anymore."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I don't know how (Randy Hanson) got beat up. Just don't know. Can't get the story. You know, it's like Gitmo. Trying to find out, did they waterboard those guys or not? No, really. It's hard to believe. How many guys went in? Four guys went into the room with a guy, the guy comes out with a broken jaw and no one saw it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now, some more quotes, not published in Wednesday's paper:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Hue Jackson:
"Today, I want you to meet the new head coach of the Oakland Raiders, and I'm proud as hell, Hue Jackson."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Jason Campbell (and Jim Plunkett):
"Jason came a long way in the year 2010, and you have to go back to the quote I gave, and a lot of you took me up on it, the quote I said that he reminds me of Jim Plunkett at this particular phase in his career.
"I said it then and I believe it now. But I also believe that Jim Plunkett was one of the ... great players of our time. Won two Super Bowls and has never gotten the acclaim he desires or deserves. He was a Heisman Trophy winner, he was a Super Bowl winner, he did as much in pro football as John Elway did, who it took 15 years to win a Super Bowl, somewhere close to that.
"I remind you that these things don't come quickly to anyone. You all espouse the greatness of Brett Favre ... uh, one Super Bowl that he won with the Green Bay Packers.
"... I saw in Jason Campbell someone down the road who can really throw the football, can run, and there are some things we have to do with him, but I think the guy who's going to be handling him in the future knows what to do and how to do it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the offense:
"I tell you ... this football team (has) the most explosive players that have been together in a long time at every offensive position. The fullback is dynamite. He can go all the way on any play. The halfbacks, McFadden and Bush, complement each other tremendously with explosion. The four wide receivers, where Schilens doesn't give the explosion maybe that you want but he gives you big plays and he gives you the first down. And then of course the tight end is just a bright young player, Miller.
"Then the quarterback is Jason right now, and what we have to rely on is (Hue Jackson), the guy I'm turning the banner over to, the baton over to, so he can lead this Raider nation, the fans, and bring back those touchdowns in that Coliseum."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On who made quarterback decisions, and his personnel record:
"TI let (Cable and Jackson) make the decision. In fact when they took Campbell out in one of the early games, I wanted to know why. They gave me the reasons why and I went with it.
"I went with Gradkowski, but I also realized that as good as Gradkowski is for a single game, we can't hold up the injury factor from happening. He incurs injuries, and that worries the hell out of me. And I like continuity.
"But I think Jason Campbell's a talent. That's my opinion.
"I did the (2010)draft. ... I made a trade for Seymour. Gave up the first-rounder this year. I could tell you why. You may not think it was a good trade. I thought it was a great trade. Still do.
"I drafted Asomugha, early in the 2000 season. I caught hell from all over the league that he isn't a first-rounder, he's a third-rounder. Now he's getting $17 million just to play corner. Willie Brown wished we'd paid that kind of money. He wouldn't even be here today. He'd own the team."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On JaMarcus Russell:
(He's) a good person but he's got personal problems, and I decided that it was time that we were not going to fight it anymore. I wasn't going to. I wasn't going to ask the coaching staff to do it, and I had already traded for Jason and had that in the back of my mind. ... It hurt us a great deal. But you have to go on. ... JaMarcus hurt. Anytime you lose a first-round draft choice it hurts. But it's over. It's been a long time and we'll overcome it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Jason Campbell and the current Raiders:
"We're going to create an environment for the quarterback here to be great. We're not totally there yet but we're working to get there."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On whether Tom Cable would have returned if the Raiders made the playoffs:
"No. When we get done with all the questions, we'll get into it, and I'll try to tell you why and what it is, that asked me to fine him. And, he knew, he knew he was through."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Darren McFadden:
"Somebody, someone gave me credit for not giving up on him. Anybody who's watched him practice and all, would say the guy's got greatness on him, but he's gotta' stay well. That's the problem with McFadden. If he stays well, we got greatness there."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Nnamdi Asomugha, and making a deal to bring him back:
"We'll work on it. He's a great player. He does a good job in the community. So you always like to have that, but, can that 17 million dollars bring you two or three quality players to help you win?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Samples of his quotes on Tom Cable and the issues surrounding him.
-"... the Randy Hanson incident, we had a turmoil in our coaching staff. Randy's jaw was broken. To this day, no one is sure how it was broken. We had a spouse accuse the coach, the head coach, of personal ... relations that were not good. And at that time there were a lot of people in the Bay Area who wanted me to take action, take action against the head coach."
-"At the time, I decided that nothing will be done on Cable, nothing would be done until we found out about Randy Hanson, and then we received a letter this year, we received a letter this year in June for the lawyer for the woman who appeared last season in ESPN by the name of (Marie Lutz). He included with his letter a copy of a lawsuit he was preparing on her behalf against Tom Cable and the Raiders. The allegations included the items discussed on ESPN and other serious and related matters. That lawsuit created a tremendous amount of work, stress and turmoil. Tom had been told earlier in his career that he could have been fired without pay for the wrath he brought on the Raider organization."
-"Now, one of the things revealed by Ms. Lutz was too much for me. And that was whether ... he brought her on trips on the road when the team's playing on the road. He's the head coach and this is the guy who's talking about focus, we've got a job to do, we've got a game to play, we've got to win, and he's there flying in friends so they can be with him the night before the game. All of this stuff goes a long way against my wishes, against my way of living, against my life and against the Raider way, and I just wasn't going to take it anymore."
-"So, our attorneys asked them to resolve all the cases against us, the Raiders, and until you do that, we're going to take money out of your check because we don't know what the final verdict will be against the Raiders in the lawsuit. And so that's why we took the $20,000. We didn't do it till six checks (were) left. And, look, there are a lot of things I can say, a lot of things I can't say based on legalese, but you make a judgment for yourself about what you think was going on in some of these complaints and what was going on with the head coach on the Raiders. We're not losers anymore."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Cable's candor, or lack thereof, with Davis, and Cable's continuing to coach this season:
"He knew what he was doing, he knew he should have let me know about all these things. He would never have been here the whole time, never. And I just didn't want to do anything with about six games to go because I said I thought we could make the playoffs; I thought we could. I thought we were primed. We messed up the Miami game, we messed up the Jacksonville game."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On how demanding he is of coaches:
"Yeah, I'm demanding of doing it right and being right, and treating players right. I'm a great believer that you praise players.
"For a while here, between Kiffin and the other fella, they were knocking the players. He changed this year because of me praising players. I don't believe you knock people like that. I just never have. I like players.
"If I'm demanding, I'm sorry. I don't think I am.
"I've had a lot of great coaches come through here. Look, go get David Shaw. He would be a perfect guy. Ask him where he learned. Go get Jim, ask him where he learned. Harbaugh. Ask Fox, who's now the head (coach) and getting a second chance at Denver. I could just go down the list of all these guys that have been here, they go through here. What's his name couldn't wait to come back, Mike Waufle. He was the most sought-after defensive line coach other than from the Giants. But, I'm not going to sell my philosophy."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the fragility of a coach's success, and Sean Payton:
"It's pretty tough to hang on to that damned thing. I had picked Payton, Sean - brought him out here, Mike Lombardi was handling it, got him under contract all set. He went home to Dallas, and Jerry (Jones) didn't want to lose him, so he gave him a million-dollar contact as an assistant and made promises to him and then the next year he goes to New Orleans, they win a Super Bowl, then this year they're supposed to ride through the playoffs, they get beat by Seattle that we nailed (by 30 points)."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Kiffin's post-Raiders career and Davis' battle with him:
"Well, you make the determination. You guys had it all figured out. You ought to read the opinion of what the arbitrator said (about) who's a liar."
"Well, I beat him because he lied. He's a liar. He lied to you guys. He got letters. ... He lied in Tennessee ."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On trading Randy Moss:
"I can't look back that far now. No, that's a mistake I made. I let it happen. The coach wanted to trade him. (Moss) scared him. All coaches are scared of him."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the fact that the Tuck Rule could be revised, and Charles Woodson:
"Oh, well, we knew that's coming. We just didn't know when it was coming. They took the game from us, let's be honest about that.
"But I wanted to say, we were playing Charles Woodson as a safety late in his career with the Raiders, and we were blitzing him a lot. He's got the strongest hands. He knocks those balls out of your hands when he tackles you. He really does. I remember he got Hines Ward in Pittsburgh, when we played Pittsburgh, I think it was the night Gannon kept throwing. ...
"That's what he can do. He likes that better than playing corner. Corner, he don't like it if he sees speed out there, he don't like it. He's a good player. Seems our corners are everywhere. Even that little Chris Carr starts for Baltimore. Yep."
End^^^^^
You gotta give to him, he still knows his football, doesn't he?
Al Davis quotes from Raiders press conference
Chronicle Staff Report
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
(01-18) 23:08 PST ALAMEDA -- Some of the notable quotes from Al Davis Tuesday, when he announced the hiring of Hue Jackson as head coach. The quotes are from his news conference and from interviews after the conference.
The first batch of quotes appeared in Wednesday's paper.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"(Jackson) came in, he was given the authority to run with the offense. He met some opposition from time to time, but he took it and ran with it and we scored points."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"(JaMarcus Russell is) a good person, but he's got personal problems, and I decided that it was time that we were not going to fight it anymore. ... JaMarcus hurt. Anytime you lose a first-round draft choice it hurts. But it's over."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Anybody who's watched (Darren McFadden) practice would say the guy's got greatness on him, but he's gotta stay well."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"(Jackson) was like, what's his name? Gruden. Gruden was like that - feisty - he could lead the defense. They are different, definitely. ... But on that particular thing they are very similar.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Tom (Cable) had been told earlier in his career that he could have been fired without pay for the wrath he brought on the Raider organization."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"All of this stuff (Cable was doing) goes a long way against my wishes, against my way of living, against my life and against the Raider way, and I just wasn't going to take it anymore."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I don't know how (Randy Hanson) got beat up. Just don't know. Can't get the story. You know, it's like Gitmo. Trying to find out, did they waterboard those guys or not? No, really. It's hard to believe. How many guys went in? Four guys went into the room with a guy, the guy comes out with a broken jaw and no one saw it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now, some more quotes, not published in Wednesday's paper:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Hue Jackson:
"Today, I want you to meet the new head coach of the Oakland Raiders, and I'm proud as hell, Hue Jackson."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Jason Campbell (and Jim Plunkett):
"Jason came a long way in the year 2010, and you have to go back to the quote I gave, and a lot of you took me up on it, the quote I said that he reminds me of Jim Plunkett at this particular phase in his career.
"I said it then and I believe it now. But I also believe that Jim Plunkett was one of the ... great players of our time. Won two Super Bowls and has never gotten the acclaim he desires or deserves. He was a Heisman Trophy winner, he was a Super Bowl winner, he did as much in pro football as John Elway did, who it took 15 years to win a Super Bowl, somewhere close to that.
"I remind you that these things don't come quickly to anyone. You all espouse the greatness of Brett Favre ... uh, one Super Bowl that he won with the Green Bay Packers.
"... I saw in Jason Campbell someone down the road who can really throw the football, can run, and there are some things we have to do with him, but I think the guy who's going to be handling him in the future knows what to do and how to do it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the offense:
"I tell you ... this football team (has) the most explosive players that have been together in a long time at every offensive position. The fullback is dynamite. He can go all the way on any play. The halfbacks, McFadden and Bush, complement each other tremendously with explosion. The four wide receivers, where Schilens doesn't give the explosion maybe that you want but he gives you big plays and he gives you the first down. And then of course the tight end is just a bright young player, Miller.
"Then the quarterback is Jason right now, and what we have to rely on is (Hue Jackson), the guy I'm turning the banner over to, the baton over to, so he can lead this Raider nation, the fans, and bring back those touchdowns in that Coliseum."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On who made quarterback decisions, and his personnel record:
"TI let (Cable and Jackson) make the decision. In fact when they took Campbell out in one of the early games, I wanted to know why. They gave me the reasons why and I went with it.
"I went with Gradkowski, but I also realized that as good as Gradkowski is for a single game, we can't hold up the injury factor from happening. He incurs injuries, and that worries the hell out of me. And I like continuity.
"But I think Jason Campbell's a talent. That's my opinion.
"I did the (2010)draft. ... I made a trade for Seymour. Gave up the first-rounder this year. I could tell you why. You may not think it was a good trade. I thought it was a great trade. Still do.
"I drafted Asomugha, early in the 2000 season. I caught hell from all over the league that he isn't a first-rounder, he's a third-rounder. Now he's getting $17 million just to play corner. Willie Brown wished we'd paid that kind of money. He wouldn't even be here today. He'd own the team."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On JaMarcus Russell:
(He's) a good person but he's got personal problems, and I decided that it was time that we were not going to fight it anymore. I wasn't going to. I wasn't going to ask the coaching staff to do it, and I had already traded for Jason and had that in the back of my mind. ... It hurt us a great deal. But you have to go on. ... JaMarcus hurt. Anytime you lose a first-round draft choice it hurts. But it's over. It's been a long time and we'll overcome it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Jason Campbell and the current Raiders:
"We're going to create an environment for the quarterback here to be great. We're not totally there yet but we're working to get there."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On whether Tom Cable would have returned if the Raiders made the playoffs:
"No. When we get done with all the questions, we'll get into it, and I'll try to tell you why and what it is, that asked me to fine him. And, he knew, he knew he was through."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Darren McFadden:
"Somebody, someone gave me credit for not giving up on him. Anybody who's watched him practice and all, would say the guy's got greatness on him, but he's gotta' stay well. That's the problem with McFadden. If he stays well, we got greatness there."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Nnamdi Asomugha, and making a deal to bring him back:
"We'll work on it. He's a great player. He does a good job in the community. So you always like to have that, but, can that 17 million dollars bring you two or three quality players to help you win?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Samples of his quotes on Tom Cable and the issues surrounding him.
-"... the Randy Hanson incident, we had a turmoil in our coaching staff. Randy's jaw was broken. To this day, no one is sure how it was broken. We had a spouse accuse the coach, the head coach, of personal ... relations that were not good. And at that time there were a lot of people in the Bay Area who wanted me to take action, take action against the head coach."
-"At the time, I decided that nothing will be done on Cable, nothing would be done until we found out about Randy Hanson, and then we received a letter this year, we received a letter this year in June for the lawyer for the woman who appeared last season in ESPN by the name of (Marie Lutz). He included with his letter a copy of a lawsuit he was preparing on her behalf against Tom Cable and the Raiders. The allegations included the items discussed on ESPN and other serious and related matters. That lawsuit created a tremendous amount of work, stress and turmoil. Tom had been told earlier in his career that he could have been fired without pay for the wrath he brought on the Raider organization."
-"Now, one of the things revealed by Ms. Lutz was too much for me. And that was whether ... he brought her on trips on the road when the team's playing on the road. He's the head coach and this is the guy who's talking about focus, we've got a job to do, we've got a game to play, we've got to win, and he's there flying in friends so they can be with him the night before the game. All of this stuff goes a long way against my wishes, against my way of living, against my life and against the Raider way, and I just wasn't going to take it anymore."
-"So, our attorneys asked them to resolve all the cases against us, the Raiders, and until you do that, we're going to take money out of your check because we don't know what the final verdict will be against the Raiders in the lawsuit. And so that's why we took the $20,000. We didn't do it till six checks (were) left. And, look, there are a lot of things I can say, a lot of things I can't say based on legalese, but you make a judgment for yourself about what you think was going on in some of these complaints and what was going on with the head coach on the Raiders. We're not losers anymore."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Cable's candor, or lack thereof, with Davis, and Cable's continuing to coach this season:
"He knew what he was doing, he knew he should have let me know about all these things. He would never have been here the whole time, never. And I just didn't want to do anything with about six games to go because I said I thought we could make the playoffs; I thought we could. I thought we were primed. We messed up the Miami game, we messed up the Jacksonville game."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On how demanding he is of coaches:
"Yeah, I'm demanding of doing it right and being right, and treating players right. I'm a great believer that you praise players.
"For a while here, between Kiffin and the other fella, they were knocking the players. He changed this year because of me praising players. I don't believe you knock people like that. I just never have. I like players.
"If I'm demanding, I'm sorry. I don't think I am.
"I've had a lot of great coaches come through here. Look, go get David Shaw. He would be a perfect guy. Ask him where he learned. Go get Jim, ask him where he learned. Harbaugh. Ask Fox, who's now the head (coach) and getting a second chance at Denver. I could just go down the list of all these guys that have been here, they go through here. What's his name couldn't wait to come back, Mike Waufle. He was the most sought-after defensive line coach other than from the Giants. But, I'm not going to sell my philosophy."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the fragility of a coach's success, and Sean Payton:
"It's pretty tough to hang on to that damned thing. I had picked Payton, Sean - brought him out here, Mike Lombardi was handling it, got him under contract all set. He went home to Dallas, and Jerry (Jones) didn't want to lose him, so he gave him a million-dollar contact as an assistant and made promises to him and then the next year he goes to New Orleans, they win a Super Bowl, then this year they're supposed to ride through the playoffs, they get beat by Seattle that we nailed (by 30 points)."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Kiffin's post-Raiders career and Davis' battle with him:
"Well, you make the determination. You guys had it all figured out. You ought to read the opinion of what the arbitrator said (about) who's a liar."
"Well, I beat him because he lied. He's a liar. He lied to you guys. He got letters. ... He lied in Tennessee ."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On trading Randy Moss:
"I can't look back that far now. No, that's a mistake I made. I let it happen. The coach wanted to trade him. (Moss) scared him. All coaches are scared of him."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the fact that the Tuck Rule could be revised, and Charles Woodson:
"Oh, well, we knew that's coming. We just didn't know when it was coming. They took the game from us, let's be honest about that.
"But I wanted to say, we were playing Charles Woodson as a safety late in his career with the Raiders, and we were blitzing him a lot. He's got the strongest hands. He knocks those balls out of your hands when he tackles you. He really does. I remember he got Hines Ward in Pittsburgh, when we played Pittsburgh, I think it was the night Gannon kept throwing. ...
"That's what he can do. He likes that better than playing corner. Corner, he don't like it if he sees speed out there, he don't like it. He's a good player. Seems our corners are everywhere. Even that little Chris Carr starts for Baltimore. Yep."
End^^^^^
You gotta give to him, he still knows his football, doesn't he?
