Al Davis Is Dead
Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, whose rebellious NFL legend began 60 years ago as an assistant with the Baltimore Colts and was punctuated with a 1992 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction in Canton, has died at 82.
The team's website released the news Saturday morning, posting a simple tribute with his name in large silver letters above "July 4, 1929-October 8, 2011."
The Raiders said the team will issue a statement later Saturday. No cause of death was released, and it was not immediately clear when and where he died.
"Based on personal achievement, team achievement and contributions to the game, no one has had a more profound and lasting impact on professional football," Davis' biography says on the team's website.
It was Davis' willingness to buck the establishment that helped turn the NFL into THE establishment in sports -- the most successful sports league in American history.
Davis was charming, cantankerous and compassionate -- a man who when his wife suffered a serious heart attack in the 1970s moved into her hospital room. But he was best known as a rebel, a man who established a team whose silver-and-black colors and pirate logo symbolized his attitude toward authority, both on the field and off.
Davis was one of the most important figures in NFL history. That was most evident during the 1980s when he fought in court -- and won -- for the right to move his team from Oakland to Los Angeles. Even after he moved them back to the Bay Area in 1995, he went to court, suing for $1.2 billion to establish that he still owned the rights to the L.A. market.
Reports surfaced in April that Davis had been hospitalized, but the team dismisssed them then as rumors, saying Davis was in good health and was preparing for the NFL draft.
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