ALAMEDA – For nearly all of Al Davis' tenure with his beloved Raiders, the franchise has been a near-perfect reflection of its prominent leader.
That was true when the rebellious owner built a team that dominated the opposition on the way to three Super Bowl titles in the 1970s and '80s and the best record in American professional sports.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, that has also been the case more recently when an owner described by his critics as out-of-touch and vindictive has overseen a run of failure in one of the most dismal stretches any team has ever endured.
Oakland (3-9) is a loss away from becoming the third NFL team to lose 10 or more games for six consecutive years. Unlike the other biggest losers – Tampa Bay (1983-94) and Detroit (2001-06) – the Raiders began this stretch the year after going to the Super Bowl.
But with 70 losses and counting since that title game loss in early 2003, Davis' team has a chance to tie the Bucs' record for ineptitude with 74 losses from 1983 to 1988.
"I worked for him for 20 years and helped him win Super Bowls," former Raiders coach Tom Flores said. "I've been through the good days, the bad days. His whole life is this team."
While there have been five head coaches, numerous assistants and scores of players in this stretch, the constant has been Davis.
By serving as both owner and general manager, Davis is a throwback to a simpler era when titanic figures ran every aspect of their franchises.
Davis is not nearly the public presence he once was. Now at age 79, Davis struggles to get around and spends much of his day working at an office away from the team facility.
He plans to hire another front office executive in the offseason and has talked about eventually passing the team on to his son Mark. But for now, he remains in charge.
"Everybody says that the game has passed Al Davis by, that all of his success was in the '60s and '70s," said senior executive John Herrera, one of Davis' closest advisers with the team. "But what about the '80s when we won two Super Bowls, or the '90s when we were competitive or the beginning of this decade when we were a dominant team?"
Those all seem like ancient history now.
In recent years, Davis' decisions have not panned out, especially when it comes to the draft and hiring coaches.
Of the eight players Oakland selected in the first round from 2001 to 2006, only two are starters for Oakland: cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and guard Robert Gallery. Five are no longer Raiders, and safety Michael Huff is a backup.
The verdict is still out on quarterback JaMarcus Russell and running back Darren McFadden, first-round picks in the past two years.
After a brief stretch of success following the hiring of Jon Gruden as head coach, the Raiders have had a revolving door of mostly ineffective coaches from Bill Callahan to Norv Turner to Art Shell to Lane Kiffin to Tom Cable.
On Monday, Cable was rehashing the botched fake field goal that led to the team's latest loss and surely irked the owner who is known for his dislike of such trick plays.
"One thing he and I share is a tremendous passion for winning," Cable said. "Losing is about the worst thing in our lives."
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