#HappybirthdayAlDavis!

Hopefully everyone out there is having a fun and safe Independence Day! Today is a day of happiness, family, fireworks and celebrating the birth of our great country. Raiders fans have one more thing that they should remember to celebrate and that is the birth of the late great Al Davis.

One Mr_AlexValerio went out of his way to remind people on Twitter to wish Al a happy birthday and it's nice to see people remembering the Raider legend who passed away in 2011. He is encouraging retweeting his tweet or using the hash tag #HappybirthdayAlDavis to pay tribute to the originator of the Oakland Raiders as we know them, and now I am encouraging you to help him with his cause.

@VicTafur @nfl @CorkOnTheNFL @RichGannon12 @CelReece45 @tyvonbranch can you RT so we can trend #HappybirthdayAlDavis

— Alex Valerio (@Mr_AlexValerio) July 4, 2013

While you're out enjoying your barbeque and celebrating the birth of our country please take the time to remember the man who created The Raider Way too. It was July 4th, 1929 when Al Davis was born, later to become one of the most polarizing and eccentric figures in professional sports history. A true Uncle Sam type character full of bravado and arrogance only surpassed by his will to win and his pursuit of excellence.

He made plenty of mistakes along the way but that is what happens when you are a trendsetter. Al had more than his fair share of great successes along with those mistakes, even if many people forget about those successes due to his final decade in charge of the Raiders. One decade of misses does not outweigh three decades of success.

Raider Nation will always appreciate the world that Al created, and here is a chance to show that appreciation with our powerful collective voice on Twitter by using #HappybirthdayAlDavis. Happy Birthday Al, and may you rest in peace.