Al Davis Quotes (36 Quotes)

No one hit anyone. Yeah, people were yelling a little bit, you know, but it's part of life. The idea is to go and get something done.

I love my country and I love my league.

Wake up, Carolee, the plane is waiting for us, we have to get to the game.

Jerry Rice made the decision and we honestly tried to accommodate him the best way we can.

Mike has always been of interest because he is dynamic, he is not afraid. But there is a fear right there of the physical. I don't know if we are ready to accept that.

We haven't been executing well against strong defenses. The kids have to learn to have more patience. We have to learn more patience and let things develop.

We came forward with everything we could to make everyone happy especially our fans and see if we can make this an economically viable organization.

I love my country and I love my league. People who have ben through this in the past want something good to come of it. What's good is another question.

A myth is a story told in a historical context. You think of that name, Al Davis, and you think of an old, rich, white guy who owns the Raiders.

There's always the possibility of a new league. You have to understand it. I do. I lived it. I coached and was a commissioner of a new league that forced a merger. I know how to do it. I really believe the numbers are there where it would be very simple to have a 10-team league. You see with no cap and no draft and no agreement with the players. They had a problem, too, because they would have anarchy. Gene Upshaw would be out eventually and the whole group would have been disbanded eventually because people would go their own way.

It just never happened. Look, the facts are the facts. The resume is out there. You can all read it. We didn't score. We didn't score enough points with the firepower we have. It's something we have to improve on. ... Anyone can make a quantum leap. Anyone.

Of the three Super Bowls that we won, he was the starting left end. I've had so many great players, but Jerry ranks among the great players.

I'd like my next head coach to be winning oriented. We would consider anyone that we think is right.

I have never forgiven myself ... that I might have made a mistake.

We've gotta run that football better, we've gotta run it tougher, and people have to understand that they're gonna get knocked. Not what we call zone blocking.

Once a Raider, always a Raider.

We've got labor peace and it's intelligent. It makes sense. We do have the greatest league in the world.

It was so obvious that it wasn't being done. We weren't scoring points, and you have to score to win in the NFL. ... We didn't score enough points with the firepower that we had.

There were plenty of role models for us. My mother believed in education and she put all three of us through college at Grambling. She did not have a high school education, but it was something she impressed upon us. After I graduated, I left Texarkana for California, because I knew I could not get a job here. I was in business with certification and accounting, so I figured it was best to go out West. So I went there. It was still tough to get in that field, but things opened up for me.

The past is now the past and we have five years to make the Raiders economically viable. We have to be able to compete.

I saw greatness in John and he lived up to it. I also saw a tremendous competitor who loved to win. John is a standard bearer, someone that players, coaches, fans and the Raider Nation can all look up to. One of his great virtues, the fire that burned bri

You don't adjust. You just dominate.

If it weren't for a new rule that came into being, we'd have played three years in a row in the championship game.

We stuttered a little bit at the start, but, hopefully, this will be good for us.

In Texarkana, school integration was approached quietly, because they didn't want to have the problems like those taking place in Little Rock. That didn't mean there weren't problems. In Little Rock, with the integration of Central High, that didn't happen quietly, so here they tried to avoid those problems. I was at Grambling at the time, and we were doing things for the civil rights movement there. We were hitting the streets like a lot of colleges did, so we started going to other campuses and other cities.

It may take a short while, but we'll get that nastiness of the Raiders back. And that's one of the reasons we're going to depend on the great Art Shell to help us get that done.

We want to win. The Raider fans deserve it. The Raider players deserve it, even my organization deserves it. You have to win and you have to win with a vision for the Super Bowl. That's our passion here.

Why should I talk to you? I don't know where you're from.

Approximately four years ago, we were told that Jerry Rice would be a free agent and there were people who felt that he no longer could contribute.

We must run the ball better. It's unbelievable. I thought one of our standards of gold this year would be our offensive line. We have some bright young players there. And we never did get the toughness, or what I would call the power running, that I thought we were going to get.

This puts entertainment officially on the map as a key market for the company.

Bill was a great friend, a brilliant performer and an exceptional man. I say this with great admiration and love that Bill becomes one of the people that I give the cloak of immortality. Time never stops for the great ones.

It's time John took his rightful place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He certainly brings an excellence to it that no one can deny. I saw greatness in him and he lived up to it.

You have to win and you have to win with a vision for the Super Bowl. That's our passion here. I just didn't feel the fit was right, and I think he agreed with me.

You have to win with a vision for the Super Bowl, I didn't feel the fit was right.

We believed he fit the bill at that time.