He was a man ahead of his time. His was a powerful voice amongst team owners. Now it seems he is behind the times according to some recent reports and comments from past players. But you can see by his recent interviews that the man still has some lead in his pencil.

I'll give Al Davis a 3.0 only because of his past accomplishments, though they are long past.  Davis, age 79, has ruined the Raiders with his autocratic, erratic, inept management since their 2002 Super Bowl loss. The Raiders have lost 64 games since the start of the 2003 season, more than any other team in the NFL.

His best choice for a coach in the past decade was Jon Gruden, who lasted four whole years before Davis fired him. Since then he's fired coaches almost yearly, and now is on his fifth coach in six years, Tom Cable, the Raiders' former offensive line coach. He fired Bill Callahan, Norv Turner, Art Shell, and now Lane Kiffin, the latest casualty, whom Davis (in a press conference) called a liar so many times that Kiffin should sue him for slander as well as for the remaining money on his contract, which Davis is refusing to pay. Don't forget that Davis also fired Mike Shanahan.

Davis controls player acquisition, and he has recently signed some free-agent duds for way too much money. CB DeAngelo Hall and WR Javon Walker come readily to mind.

The local sports press have been highly critical of Davis because he won't relinquish his tight control of every detail. No one with any head-coaching experience will work for him. Former Raider players like Warren Sapp and QB Rich Gannon also have been critical of Davis.

I wouldn't have the bastard over for dinner, and if I did I count the silverware before he left, but he deserves to be in three fold.

He has done as much to build the AFL and then the NFL's profile as any "builder" in the Hall, albeit not always in a politically correct manner.

The fact that as he has aged, he has steadily turned the Raiders into a joke in no way limits his importance.