Art Shell back as Raiders head coach...

[Robeson]

... http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2326498

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Actually, he's the assistant coach

Al Davis is the head coach.

[sabbat hunter]

2. quite true

no matter who holds the offical title of head coach, it seems like al davis has a hand in it. especially the offense and his love of down field passing game.

i think if he thought he could get away with it he would just install himself as head coach again.

i think the last person to actually be head coach in reality not just name was madden.


there is a reason why coaches like Parcells, Fassell, wiesenhunt turned down the job to coach tehre. they knew Davis would interfere too much.

wonder when the league will finally step in and get davis to back off.

[Robeson]

3. "wonder when the league will finally step in .....

....and get Davis to back off."

Well the League can't do a thing about Davis. They've already tried many times in court, and Davis has proven, he'll match the League buck for buck to maintain his independence. Actually, I kind of like it and find it ironic that Davis hired Shell to be head coach. The NFL has caught a lot of flack over not hiring minority coaches this offseason, and hasn't responded to the criticism yet. Then the one guy who is perpetually at war with the League, is the one who hires a minority coach....

Way to go Al!...
:thumbsup:

[sabbat hunter]

4. davis

also fired shell 12 years ago (wrongly IMO)
he also hired shell as the first black head coach.

the NFL has a requirement that you interview minorities to be head coaches. jets interviewd donnie henderson.
but that rule is silly IMO, if you have your sights set on a certain coach (like the lions did a couple of years ago with mariucci) then why give anyone a prefunctory interview?

i think it is a good sign that so many head coaches hired this year are first time head coaches. it would be great if there were more minority coaches.

the best way for the league to get minority coaches hired is offer interview skill sessions for all assistant and college coaches who want to be head coaches in the NFL. this i think will allow more younger coaches hired overall.

[KitchenWitch]

5. He also said he regretted firing Shell

[akarnitz]

6. Sorry, but Shell was the 2nd

black head coach in the league. Fritz Pollard was the 1st. Here's a link to his Hall of Fame entry:http://www.profootballhof.com/hof/member.jsp?player_id=242

Davis did hire the first Mexican-American head coach(if I'm not mistaken): Tom Flores. No HoF entry for the coach, but here's his wikipedia entry:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Flores