I have been saying all along that Kiffin is a self-serving media manipulator. And for Al to straight-up call him a liar in the setting that it was, would be slander if not supported by facts, which it was.

Kiffin, on the other hand, as you pointed out from his ESPN interview, clearly side stepped the direct Trey Wingo question. That was quite indicative of who the real liar is in all of this. In my opinion, Kiffin was caught dead-to-right lying and being a liar. with that, anything he says can’t be believed or relied upon.

The Kiffin firing was inevitable and I was hoping all along for Tom Cable who has the right approach and the true look/mentality of a head coach.

I think the Raiders will be all the better for this and that will show in New Orleans.

who will lead the Raiders to the promised land along with Cable!!!

…is better described as sophomoric or being the “wise fool”. Kiffin pushed the envelope as far as he could and his “blunt honesty” was truthful at certain times and manipulative at others.

I still think he has a bright future but needs more nurturing when he resumes a head coach’s position. This experience in Oakland will ultimately him mature. WIth that said, good luck to Cable I think we can expect 3-5 more wins in Oakland this season, just hard to say how much of that will be due to his leadership.

the press is much more interested in bashing Al so they didn’t talk about it. The relationship went south when two months into last season Kiffin was mentioned as a candidate for Arkansas. But it wasn’t just that Kiffin was mentioned, he was interested in going, in fact, he wanted to go. Now the mistake Al made is that he should have let him go right then, instead Al fumed about it, and then the Ryan firing etc.
I have no respect for the media, they prefer to bash Al rather than do a reasoned examination of the facts. What would happen in Miami if the coach fired the defensive coordinator without telling Parcells? The press loves Parcell so the coach would get pilloried. As pointed out by another writer on this post, when Kiffin mentioned the other day he wasn’t going to talk about his conversations with Al, I realized for the first time Kiffin had been lying about the communication. He said he had none with Al since August, so if that was true, all he would have to say is that I haven’t talked or heard from Al since then, easy answer. Al was very, very specific on the issues which leads me to believe he was telling the truth, he mentioned which players Kiffin didn’t have input on, (Wilson) and which he did, (everybody else.) He said Kiffin had input on defense and even called the defenses he wanted, Kiffin said he had no input. Ryan could clear that one up, and I assume Ryan would back Al, of course, I wouldn’t put all that much weight on that. He is well documented now that Kiffin ordered Hansen to remove himself from the team and get a physical which Hansen very forcefully called Kiffin out on. Kiffin supposedly got overruled on Russell, not a big deal, he manned up and coached Russell. I suspect that goes on all the time over draft picks. Kiffin cut Crockett which pissed Davis off, but he allowed it so Kiffin won the battle, lost the war.

With all due respect to your article i think your drinking a little to much Al Davis cool-aid, Mr Davis HAS ruined a once proud franchise with his jealousy, backstabbing and mistrust of the coaches he has hired. I’ll admit that Kiffin handled this entire situation badly, but the team did play hard for him and there was progress,in spite of Rob Ryan, as long as Davis is in control there will be no stability in the organization which it badly needs. (sorry Jamarcus)The Raiders under Davis have become a joke in the sports world even worse than the Clippers. He needs to go! Also Tom Cable qualified please, 11-35 record at Idaho (what a powerhouse) its laughable another kiss ass for Davis i give him the rest of the year then he’ll sue for the remainder of his contract when he gets fired.What a bush league organization.

From Tim Kawakami’s taliking points coulnmn…..fucking beautiful stuff!!!!!

Enjoy-MRod
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2008/09/30/al-davis-after-the-cameras-were-off-kiffin-conned-me-like-you-conned-all-you-people/

the only people who support al davis are raider’s fans. i dont get it, this guy is killing your franchise and you love him.

and it’s Al Davis. For years Al has been a paranoid fool, suing people left and right, riffling through coaches, players, front office personel, and cities that he sees as disloyal. Al has made mistake after mistake, in every facet of the game, and has done nothing but hurt the Raiders over the past 15 years.

And what conclusion do you come to? That Lane was manipulating Al. That Lane wanted to get fired and was trying to tear the team apart from the inside. Why in the world would Lane want to leave an NFL head coaching job? Why would he try to get fired? To go to Arkansas? If you truely believe that then the situation is even worse for Al. When you’re so disfunctional, so inept, that your coach is trying to fire YOU so he can get out of the NFL and go back to the NCAA you have some serious problems.

Defending Al needs to stop. Talking about what he did 20+ years ago needs to stop. Blaming eveyone except the man making the decisions needs to stop. The Raiders will always be the laughing stock of the league as long as Al Davis is in charge.

shanahan, gruden, and others, its just hard not to take kiffins side. he is pretty likeable to me. He was put in almost an impossible situation. What other franchise does crap like this happen to? even if kiffin didn’t handle it perfectly, shit maybe he handled it poorly, i think the blame is most likely on Davis why this didn’t work out.

this because I hadn’t seen the press conference yet but after watching iit last night on youtube I was intrigued. This was a very impressive performance on Davis’ part. How much of it I believe I don’t know. We all believed the president when he said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Davis is no Bush and Kiffin is not Saddam, but you see what I’m getting at. This is not settled and the truth will all come out eventually. Al Davis said he called out his players. Ok I played football in high school and basketball in high school and the collegiate level and my coaches have called me out many times what coach hasn’t. This is another form of motivation. Also the players loved playing for Kiffin here are some quotes I saw from yahoo sports:

So why fire him? Did the locker room hate him (as you’d think they might, if you believe the claims in Al Davis’s insane letter blasting Kiffin for being critical of individual players)? I don’t know. Let’s ask linebacker Kirk Morrison, via ESPN’s Chris Mortensen:

“Kirk Morrison said the players in this locker room want to play for this coach [Kiffin]; want to play hard for this coach. Observers who have been at the practices see that. And certainly, it was reflected in the way they were competitive.”

Don’t believe Morrison? Alright, let’s ask Nnamdi Asomugha, who made an appearance on the NFL Network yesterday afternoon:

“It definitely wasn’t a split locker room. I think pretty much the majority of the locker room wanted Lane there. A lot of the guys really appreciated what Lane did when he came in, and tried to change the culture; the losing culture that we’ve had that past few years. Guys were really on board with him.”

Kiffin is a good coach, yes he’s young but let’s not put this on him. We have been consistently bad over the decades. Who is at fault for this mess if the coaches change every other year but management stays the same? I know Al want’s to win and he is taking the right steps because he did say he wanted to hire someone for the football operations (as long as it isn’t Matt Millen).

is everybody against kiffin? do we fail to recognize that he got the most out of a team that wasnt exactly built to succeed. overpriced number 1 reciever, (basically) rookie qb, no true good recievers, how could we be dissoppointed with the results. how could we question play calling when we kno there are no reliable recievers to make plays for us wen the team is tryn to protect leads in the 4th quarter? the logical move is to run (with the “good” running game people are saying they need to be using) and kill as much clock as possible. shouldnt we really be questioning the excution of the offense. if they are able to get 1 maybe 2 first downs the defense will get the rest to be able to be affective, or run the clock out. the team obviously liked kiffin and wanted to keep playing for him. al is mad because lane is complaining about injustices that he has actually suffered. with the way the defense gave up on the team last year and the year before is it really far fetched to ask for a change in coordinator when maybe, in retrospect, it was necessary. lane wasn’t given ample opportunity to finish rebuilding when he was handed a team that was 2-14, its obvious that that isnt a1 year fix. with obvious signs of an improving team and the well known fact that many young teams struggle to finish games. there is no doubt in my mind that this team was headed in the right direction and they wanted to play for lane. instead we fire him and hire a man who was coaching the offensive line that has underperformed the last 3-4 years and expect a turn around. al continues to baffle me with his decisions. i wish lane the best and hate the feeling that this is shanahan or gruden all over again. fire a guy wen with a little better execution late in games he could hav been 3-1 going into the bye week and atop the afc west, easily

was obviously the worst decision of the offseason. griping about that should not be held against lane. losing to the undefeated bills on the east coast and a chargers team with the weapons they have is nothing to hang your head about. the lack of reliable recievers is killing the team and lane obviously didnt agree that walker would be the man to fill that void. those millions and millions of dollars could have been spent elsewhere and gotten something worth the value. any coach would be upset at what lane was given as a number 1 reciever.