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USA TODAY
October 12, 1993, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
Raiders' Evans still can generate rallies
BYLINE: David Leon Moore
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 8C
LENGTH: 439 words
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
A generation ago, University of Southern California football fans at the Los Angeles Coliseum mercilessly booed a quarterback who seemed so confused and inept that people wondered what he was doing on any college team, much less the defending national champion.
The next year, the same quarterback led the Trojans to an 11-1 record, a No. 2 national ranking and a Rose Bowl win in which he was named Player of the Game. He was also voted the Trojans' Most Inspirational Player.
That was the first of many comebacks for Vince Evans. Sons and daughters of fans who booed Evans in 1975 were probably cheering at the Coliseum Sunday when Evans, 38, came off the bench to lead the Los Angeles Raiders from a 17-0 deficit to a 24-20 victory against the New York Jets.
"It's personally gratifying," Evans said of the win, "but it's hard to separate what this means to me from what it means to the team.
"Everybody was important in this victory. On that last drive, everybody was feeding off one another."
And, afterward, there was an unlikely hero named Evans, who, a week earlier, had filled in for injured starter Jeff Hostetler and struggled in a 24-9 loss to Kansas City.
As for a quarterback debate in Los Angeles, this one has the makings of one of the kindest quarterback controversies in the NFL.
"I don't know what's going to happen next week," Evans said. "I'm one of the members of this football team, and my role is to back up Jeff Hostetler. I have a great relationship with Jeff. He's a gentleman, a class act."
Raiders coach Art Shell said despite Evans' heroics, Hostetler will likely be the starter next Monday night at Denver.
Shell said a still-tender right ankle was responsible for Hostetler's early struggles against the Jets - one lost fumble plus two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown.
Evans had enough early setbacks to steer a less-persistent athlete into another job. He struggled as a young starter for the Chicago Bears, then played in the USFL, then was out of football until he played for the Raiders during the 1987 strike. He didn't play at all in '88 and played briefly in '89, '90 and '91.
Before Sunday, his biggest NFL highlight since his Bears days was probably last season's final game, when he led a 21-20 comeback win over the Redskins at Washington.
"My faith in the Lord sustained me over the years when people said negative things about me. From a personal standpoint, I guess this says something about a man and his faith," Evans said.
"Vince is incredible," said Raiders receiver Tim Brown. "After last week, people were saying he's done, he's played too long."
Copyright 1993 Gannett Company, Inc.
USA TODAY
October 12, 1993, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
Raiders' Evans still can generate rallies
BYLINE: David Leon Moore
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 8C
LENGTH: 439 words
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
A generation ago, University of Southern California football fans at the Los Angeles Coliseum mercilessly booed a quarterback who seemed so confused and inept that people wondered what he was doing on any college team, much less the defending national champion.
The next year, the same quarterback led the Trojans to an 11-1 record, a No. 2 national ranking and a Rose Bowl win in which he was named Player of the Game. He was also voted the Trojans' Most Inspirational Player.
That was the first of many comebacks for Vince Evans. Sons and daughters of fans who booed Evans in 1975 were probably cheering at the Coliseum Sunday when Evans, 38, came off the bench to lead the Los Angeles Raiders from a 17-0 deficit to a 24-20 victory against the New York Jets.
"It's personally gratifying," Evans said of the win, "but it's hard to separate what this means to me from what it means to the team.
"Everybody was important in this victory. On that last drive, everybody was feeding off one another."
And, afterward, there was an unlikely hero named Evans, who, a week earlier, had filled in for injured starter Jeff Hostetler and struggled in a 24-9 loss to Kansas City.
As for a quarterback debate in Los Angeles, this one has the makings of one of the kindest quarterback controversies in the NFL.
"I don't know what's going to happen next week," Evans said. "I'm one of the members of this football team, and my role is to back up Jeff Hostetler. I have a great relationship with Jeff. He's a gentleman, a class act."
Raiders coach Art Shell said despite Evans' heroics, Hostetler will likely be the starter next Monday night at Denver.
Shell said a still-tender right ankle was responsible for Hostetler's early struggles against the Jets - one lost fumble plus two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown.
Evans had enough early setbacks to steer a less-persistent athlete into another job. He struggled as a young starter for the Chicago Bears, then played in the USFL, then was out of football until he played for the Raiders during the 1987 strike. He didn't play at all in '88 and played briefly in '89, '90 and '91.
Before Sunday, his biggest NFL highlight since his Bears days was probably last season's final game, when he led a 21-20 comeback win over the Redskins at Washington.
"My faith in the Lord sustained me over the years when people said negative things about me. From a personal standpoint, I guess this says something about a man and his faith," Evans said.
"Vince is incredible," said Raiders receiver Tim Brown. "After last week, people were saying he's done, he's played too long."
Copyright 1993 Gannett Company, Inc.
The Washington Times
December 27, 1992, Sunday, Final Edition
When the time came to pass, Raiders' Evans came through
BYLINE: Karen Goldberg and Thom Loverro; THE WASHINGTON TIMES
SECTION: Part C; SPORTS; RAIDERS 21, REDSKINS 20; Pg. C5
LENGTH: 610 words
Quarterback Jay Schroeder's return to the nation's capital ended in the same way his career in Washington did - benched.
Enter Vince Evans, the 37-year-old journeyman who put the Redskins on the bubble for at least one more day.
Evans was put in the game on the Raiders' last series of the first half after Schroeder failed to get the offense moving. Schroeder was 4-for-11 for 41 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
The Raiders managed only six first downs behind Schroeder. With Evans in, they had twice as many. Evans threw for 214 yards (15 of 22) and two touchdowns. He ran five times for 42 yards. He was intercepted once.
His output yesterday was no record-setter. It was, however, more yardage than he has had in the past four seasons. He's thrown just 13 touchdown passes since 1981.
"I just thank God to be in the opportunity to be in a position to compete like that," Evans said. "I've always felt that my latter days were going to be greater than my former because of a sense of maturity and a sense of knowing that I could get it done. I think that's one of the reasons why I've been so diligent in keeping myself in shape."
Evans gave the Raiders a 7-3 lead on their last possession of the third quarter with a 41-yard pass to Alexander Wright. Evans threw a 15-yard pass to Wright again midway through the fourth quarter. That play set up Nick Bell's five-yard run for a touchdown and a 14-13 lead.
But Evans' clutch play with 1:57 left in the game and Los Angeles behind 20-14 essentially won the game for the Raiders.
Evans threw a 50-yard bomb to Willie Gault that brought the ball to the Redskins 8. Four plays later, on fourth down at the Redskins 3, Evans' pass to Tim Brown was good.
"It was very intense in the huddle," Evans said. "I kept saying that we needed to have a sense of urgency and had to be tenacious, because I felt that all game long we had been controlling the line of scrimmage. I've hit [Brown] on that touchdown before. I had a couple of options, either to throw to Timmy real quick or to go outside, and I saw Timmy and hit him. He made a great catch."
Evans, a Southern California product who played with the Chicago Bears from 1977-'83, spent two seasons in the now-defunct United States Football League and joined the Raiders in 1987 as a strikebreaker.
His playing time since then has been minimal (he threw 17 passes from 1988-'91), and the Raiders have waived and re-signed him eight times in the past two years.
But this year, with the Raiders' offense in trouble with highly inconsistent quarterbacking from Schroeder and Todd Marinovich, Evans has seen more substantial action. He replaced Schroeder for almost the entire second half against the San Diego Chargers last week and was nine of 20 for 115 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
"Vince is a great competitor," Raiders coach Art Shell said. "He went out there and made the key plays for us. Some people want to call him old, but he's a very determined young man. So we're just glad to have him with us. Vince probably has as strong an arm as anybody in professional football."
The Redskins agree. The defense prepared for both Schroeder's long arm and Evans' scrambling ability last week. It wasn't Schroeder, the former Redskin, whom they had the problem with.
"Evans wasn't an old-timer to me," Redskins defensive tackle Jumpy Geathers said. "This guy was motivated. He's a leader; he was pumping the guys up. I didn't know he had that strong an arm. He surprised me."
Copyright 1992 The Washington Times LLC
December 27, 1992, Sunday, Final Edition
When the time came to pass, Raiders' Evans came through
BYLINE: Karen Goldberg and Thom Loverro; THE WASHINGTON TIMES
SECTION: Part C; SPORTS; RAIDERS 21, REDSKINS 20; Pg. C5
LENGTH: 610 words
Quarterback Jay Schroeder's return to the nation's capital ended in the same way his career in Washington did - benched.
Enter Vince Evans, the 37-year-old journeyman who put the Redskins on the bubble for at least one more day.
Evans was put in the game on the Raiders' last series of the first half after Schroeder failed to get the offense moving. Schroeder was 4-for-11 for 41 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
The Raiders managed only six first downs behind Schroeder. With Evans in, they had twice as many. Evans threw for 214 yards (15 of 22) and two touchdowns. He ran five times for 42 yards. He was intercepted once.
His output yesterday was no record-setter. It was, however, more yardage than he has had in the past four seasons. He's thrown just 13 touchdown passes since 1981.
"I just thank God to be in the opportunity to be in a position to compete like that," Evans said. "I've always felt that my latter days were going to be greater than my former because of a sense of maturity and a sense of knowing that I could get it done. I think that's one of the reasons why I've been so diligent in keeping myself in shape."
Evans gave the Raiders a 7-3 lead on their last possession of the third quarter with a 41-yard pass to Alexander Wright. Evans threw a 15-yard pass to Wright again midway through the fourth quarter. That play set up Nick Bell's five-yard run for a touchdown and a 14-13 lead.
But Evans' clutch play with 1:57 left in the game and Los Angeles behind 20-14 essentially won the game for the Raiders.
Evans threw a 50-yard bomb to Willie Gault that brought the ball to the Redskins 8. Four plays later, on fourth down at the Redskins 3, Evans' pass to Tim Brown was good.
"It was very intense in the huddle," Evans said. "I kept saying that we needed to have a sense of urgency and had to be tenacious, because I felt that all game long we had been controlling the line of scrimmage. I've hit [Brown] on that touchdown before. I had a couple of options, either to throw to Timmy real quick or to go outside, and I saw Timmy and hit him. He made a great catch."
Evans, a Southern California product who played with the Chicago Bears from 1977-'83, spent two seasons in the now-defunct United States Football League and joined the Raiders in 1987 as a strikebreaker.
His playing time since then has been minimal (he threw 17 passes from 1988-'91), and the Raiders have waived and re-signed him eight times in the past two years.
But this year, with the Raiders' offense in trouble with highly inconsistent quarterbacking from Schroeder and Todd Marinovich, Evans has seen more substantial action. He replaced Schroeder for almost the entire second half against the San Diego Chargers last week and was nine of 20 for 115 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
"Vince is a great competitor," Raiders coach Art Shell said. "He went out there and made the key plays for us. Some people want to call him old, but he's a very determined young man. So we're just glad to have him with us. Vince probably has as strong an arm as anybody in professional football."
The Redskins agree. The defense prepared for both Schroeder's long arm and Evans' scrambling ability last week. It wasn't Schroeder, the former Redskin, whom they had the problem with.
"Evans wasn't an old-timer to me," Redskins defensive tackle Jumpy Geathers said. "This guy was motivated. He's a leader; he was pumping the guys up. I didn't know he had that strong an arm. He surprised me."
Copyright 1992 The Washington Times LLC
The Sun Herald
October 5, 2000, Thursday
D.C. native finds himself, his game and friends at Ole Miss
BYLINE: By Jim Mashek
SECTION: SPORTS
LENGTH: 906 words
BILOXI, Miss. _ Defensive end Derrick Burgess arrived at the Ole Miss campus in 1997. He was a wide-eyed freshman from metropolitan Washington, a native of the nation's capital experiencing life on his own terms for the first time.
Well, sort of.
Burgess went though an adjustment period. It wasn't always easy, and it was a time in which he learned plenty about the world, and a lot more about himself, than he may ever had in his 18 or so years growing up in Riverdale, Md., and thereabouts.
The Ole Miss lineman had to look at his priorities. He had to examine his goals. He had to make decisions on his own.
"I made my official visit during my senior year at Eleanor Roosevelt High. I went back home to D.C. and everybody was asking me about my trip," Burgess recalled. "I'd heard about the Confederate flag, and I knew there was some talk about it, but none of that even mattered to me. The players I met, the coaches, we got along fine. The students were great.
"There were some skeptical people, here in Oxford and back home ... I'd made a lot of recruiting visits, but they were mostly schools closer to home. Maryland, of course, because it was right down the street. I went to Virginia, spent a day or two at N.C. State, went to Syracuse.
"I'd always taken the SAT for those schools, and I didn't know about the ACT that much. The third time I took the SAT, I passed. And I decided I was coming to Ole Miss."
The Rebels have been thankful ever since.
Ole Miss (3-1, 2-1 in the Southeastern Conference) faces Arkansas State in a nonconference game on Saturday at Oxford's Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Burgess, a 6-foot-2, 260-pound senior, was voted as one of four permanent team captains during spring drills. The others are fellow defensive end Shane Elam, All-SEC tailback Deuce McAllister and Romaro Miller, the Rebels' starting quarterback.
Burgess may have had the best game of his Ole Miss career Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway. He sacked Kentucky's promising quarterback, 275-pound left-hander Jared Lorenzen, on the game's first play. He recorded the first interception of his Ole Miss career in the fourth quarter, on a tipped Lorenzen pass, and anchored a defense that dismantled the Wildcats in the Rebels' 35-17 victory.
Burgess finished the game with seven tackles and two sacks for 26 yards in losses and kept steady pressure on Lorenzen.
Not bad for a guy who doesn't want to admit he had second thoughts about enrolling at Ole Miss after his arrival in 1997 even if he did.
Just ask Romaro Miller, who is from the small northeast Mississippi town of Shannon.
"There was culture shock for Derrick," Miller said with a laugh. "We'd seen it before with other guys from bigger cities. It was different, not always easy, and he didn't mind telling you, especially when we were freshmen.
"Derrick's just learned how to enjoy it. He's done well in school (as a business major), he's made a lot of friends, he's developed so much as a person. He's a man now. When he came here, he was kind of a live wire."
Truth be told, he still is for the Rebels' opponents.
(c) 2000, The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.).
Visit The Sun Herald Online at http://www.sunherald.com/
October 5, 2000, Thursday
D.C. native finds himself, his game and friends at Ole Miss
BYLINE: By Jim Mashek
SECTION: SPORTS
LENGTH: 906 words
BILOXI, Miss. _ Defensive end Derrick Burgess arrived at the Ole Miss campus in 1997. He was a wide-eyed freshman from metropolitan Washington, a native of the nation's capital experiencing life on his own terms for the first time.
Well, sort of.
Burgess went though an adjustment period. It wasn't always easy, and it was a time in which he learned plenty about the world, and a lot more about himself, than he may ever had in his 18 or so years growing up in Riverdale, Md., and thereabouts.
The Ole Miss lineman had to look at his priorities. He had to examine his goals. He had to make decisions on his own.
"I made my official visit during my senior year at Eleanor Roosevelt High. I went back home to D.C. and everybody was asking me about my trip," Burgess recalled. "I'd heard about the Confederate flag, and I knew there was some talk about it, but none of that even mattered to me. The players I met, the coaches, we got along fine. The students were great.
"There were some skeptical people, here in Oxford and back home ... I'd made a lot of recruiting visits, but they were mostly schools closer to home. Maryland, of course, because it was right down the street. I went to Virginia, spent a day or two at N.C. State, went to Syracuse.
"I'd always taken the SAT for those schools, and I didn't know about the ACT that much. The third time I took the SAT, I passed. And I decided I was coming to Ole Miss."
The Rebels have been thankful ever since.
Ole Miss (3-1, 2-1 in the Southeastern Conference) faces Arkansas State in a nonconference game on Saturday at Oxford's Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Burgess, a 6-foot-2, 260-pound senior, was voted as one of four permanent team captains during spring drills. The others are fellow defensive end Shane Elam, All-SEC tailback Deuce McAllister and Romaro Miller, the Rebels' starting quarterback.
Burgess may have had the best game of his Ole Miss career Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway. He sacked Kentucky's promising quarterback, 275-pound left-hander Jared Lorenzen, on the game's first play. He recorded the first interception of his Ole Miss career in the fourth quarter, on a tipped Lorenzen pass, and anchored a defense that dismantled the Wildcats in the Rebels' 35-17 victory.
Burgess finished the game with seven tackles and two sacks for 26 yards in losses and kept steady pressure on Lorenzen.
Not bad for a guy who doesn't want to admit he had second thoughts about enrolling at Ole Miss after his arrival in 1997 even if he did.
Just ask Romaro Miller, who is from the small northeast Mississippi town of Shannon.
"There was culture shock for Derrick," Miller said with a laugh. "We'd seen it before with other guys from bigger cities. It was different, not always easy, and he didn't mind telling you, especially when we were freshmen.
"Derrick's just learned how to enjoy it. He's done well in school (as a business major), he's made a lot of friends, he's developed so much as a person. He's a man now. When he came here, he was kind of a live wire."
Truth be told, he still is for the Rebels' opponents.
(c) 2000, The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.).
Visit The Sun Herald Online at http://www.sunherald.com/
USA TODAY
August 13, 1997, Wednesday, FIRST EDITION
Prep masters two sports Va. basketball, football star poised during hectic period
BYLINE: Carolyn White
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 3C
LENGTH: 1163 words
DATELINE: HAMPTON, Va.
HAMPTON, Va. -- As the last football players trickle from the
locker room, Hampton High trainer Diane Limerick glances at a
visiting reporter and smiles.
"I see he's not rushing out for you either," she says, laughing.?"Let me tell you, he doesn't get excited about anybody. When?he's not competing, Ronald Curry is one slow guy."
Who could blame him? It isn't often that Curry, considered the
USA's top prep quarterback and No. 1 basketball point guard,
has a chance to slow his pace.
The past year has been a whirlwind of nonstop competition for?the 18-year-old with good size (6-3, 190), good grades (3.52 grade?point average) and good attitude.
Hampton is also the hometown of Allen Iverson, last season's NBA?rookie of the year and a two-sport sensation at nearby Bethel?High.
Locals frequently compare the two, and the consensus is that while?Iverson is flashier and might have the edge in basketball, Curry?is the better quarterback.
Last season, Curry led Hampton to its second consecutive state?football championship and a state Class AAA basketball title.
Last month, he played point guard for the talent-laden Hampton?Roads summer league team that won a national junior AAU title.
The first four-year starter at quarterback in coach Mike Smith's?27-year career at Hampton, Curry is an offensive, defensive and?special teams phenom.
In his first three seasons, Curry rushed for 2,441 yards and 52?touchdowns (averaging 6.9 yards a carry) and passed for 5,635?yards and 64 TDs.
At the start of his junior season, analysts, reporters and scouts?called Curry the most talented high school quarterback they'd?seen in years.
That was before he passed for 2,293 yards and 36 TDs and rushed?for 902 yards and 29 TDs as Hampton outscored its opponents 819-93.?Curry, who returns kicks, also scored on nine punts, one kickoff,?six interceptions and one blocked field goal. He became the only?junior to be named first-team All-USA quarterback.
"I've been doing this since 1979, and this is the best year I've?seen for quarterbacks," says Tom Lemming, a recruiting analyst?and editor of Prep Football Report. "But Curry's?the best of the group. He's every bit as talented as (John) Elway,?(Dan) Marino and (Jeff) George when they were in high school."
With all his physical skills, Curry's most amazing asset is his?game-breaking poise under pressure, says Lemming. "He's more?of a threat on the run than in the pocket. It's tough for a defense?to come up with plays to stop Curry."
Coach Smith first took note of Curry when he was an eighth grader?and quarterback of Hampton's junior varsity.
"I saw him sprint to his left, then throw the ball 60 yards upfield?and hit a guy right in the hands," Smith recalls.
From that point on, Smith directed college recruiters to the JV?practice field.
On the basketball court, Curry's efforts to slow down, play with?more control and improve
his outside jump shot have helped his stock rise.
Last spring, he averaged 23.8 points, eight rebounds and seven?assists for Virginia's Class AAA champions.
Two weeks after taking that title, he took up AAU basketball.?And less than three days after returning in triumph from the AAU?nationals, Curry was sweating through two-a-day football practices.
Coach Smith's first practice begins at 5 a.m., a major sacrifice?for Curry, who likes to sleep late. "I figure if I can survive?this, I can survive anything," he says.
What Curry needs now is rest, time off to heal a bruised heel,?the result of playing on hard basketball surfaces.
A fork in the road
There might be other pressures. According to published
reports, Curry's coaches are mobilizing in different camps. Football?coach Smith wants him to go to Virginia, while basketball coach?Walter Brower wants Curry to pledge his allegiance to national?hoops powerhouse North Carolina.
There's ammunition for both camps. Curry's mother, his ailing?grandmother and three sisters live in North Carolina. Three former?teammates are on scholarship at Virginia: 1996 all-state receiver?Ahmad Hawkins; close friend Kenny Crawford, a transfer from VMI;?and 1995 Hampton defensive standout Donny Green.
Smith and Brower say reports of a feud are no more than media?hype.
"I'd never tell a kid where to go to school, just what to look?for before making a decision," says Smith.
"I'm not pushing for him to go anywhere. I want it to be
Ronald's decision," says the soft-spoken Brower. "I would hope?he'd go on and enjoy his senior year, enjoy being a high school?student."
Curry laughs at all the speculation. No, there was no hidden message?in his wearing North Carolina undershorts to football practice?last week. "They were a gift from my grandmother," he says.?"I wore them just to irritate Coach Smith."
He plans to commit during the early signing period in November.?"But at this point, I really haven't made up my mind. Right now,?I just want to go to college and play both sports as long as I?can."
Honor and excellence
Curry is intensely private and lets few people enter his emotional?realm.
Smith has "been like a father to me," Curry says. "He's helped?me handle a lot of problems. He's always been there for me."
Another influence was his cousin, Joemel Dennis, who was killed?in a robbery attempt four years ago.
"He was a good athlete, better than me," Curry says. "Every?position I play, he played. But he worked me, never let me outdo?him."
After grieving, Curry found another way to remember his cousin.?"I realized I could honor Joemel more by excelling in everything?I do."
Curry's legal guardian, 72-year-old Lillian Crawford, is close?to his heart.
And for good reason. Ronald and his younger cousin, Almondo, now?a junior at Hampton, were living with their grandmother when she?suffered a stroke three years ago.
When Curry's mom took his grandmother back to North Carolina with?her, Ronald and Almondo, another two-sport standout, looked for?a way to continue playing for Hampton.
Crawford, who had eight children, 36 grandchildren and 38 great?grandchildren, watched Curry grow up, playing ball in the street?with her great-grandson Kenny. She opened up her home.
"They're just like one of my chldren. There's nothing I wouldn't?do for them," says Crawford.
And Ronald Curry "goes right to my heart," Crawford says. "Sometimes,?if he gets extra money, he'll press $ 20 in my hand. He always?tells me, 'Big Momma, you're worth much more than that.
"Not a day goes by when he doesn't thank me for a meal, asks?how I feel, how was my day."
Curry feels deeply indebted to his caring guardian.
"Before, I went to church because other people made me go. Big?Momma taught me how to go there to praise and worship God. If?I do make it one day, she's the first person I'd want to take?care of."
Copyright 1997 Gannett Company, Inc.
August 13, 1997, Wednesday, FIRST EDITION
Prep masters two sports Va. basketball, football star poised during hectic period
BYLINE: Carolyn White
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 3C
LENGTH: 1163 words
DATELINE: HAMPTON, Va.
HAMPTON, Va. -- As the last football players trickle from the
locker room, Hampton High trainer Diane Limerick glances at a
visiting reporter and smiles.
"I see he's not rushing out for you either," she says, laughing.?"Let me tell you, he doesn't get excited about anybody. When?he's not competing, Ronald Curry is one slow guy."
Who could blame him? It isn't often that Curry, considered the
USA's top prep quarterback and No. 1 basketball point guard,
has a chance to slow his pace.
The past year has been a whirlwind of nonstop competition for?the 18-year-old with good size (6-3, 190), good grades (3.52 grade?point average) and good attitude.
Hampton is also the hometown of Allen Iverson, last season's NBA?rookie of the year and a two-sport sensation at nearby Bethel?High.
Locals frequently compare the two, and the consensus is that while?Iverson is flashier and might have the edge in basketball, Curry?is the better quarterback.
Last season, Curry led Hampton to its second consecutive state?football championship and a state Class AAA basketball title.
Last month, he played point guard for the talent-laden Hampton?Roads summer league team that won a national junior AAU title.
The first four-year starter at quarterback in coach Mike Smith's?27-year career at Hampton, Curry is an offensive, defensive and?special teams phenom.
In his first three seasons, Curry rushed for 2,441 yards and 52?touchdowns (averaging 6.9 yards a carry) and passed for 5,635?yards and 64 TDs.
At the start of his junior season, analysts, reporters and scouts?called Curry the most talented high school quarterback they'd?seen in years.
That was before he passed for 2,293 yards and 36 TDs and rushed?for 902 yards and 29 TDs as Hampton outscored its opponents 819-93.?Curry, who returns kicks, also scored on nine punts, one kickoff,?six interceptions and one blocked field goal. He became the only?junior to be named first-team All-USA quarterback.
"I've been doing this since 1979, and this is the best year I've?seen for quarterbacks," says Tom Lemming, a recruiting analyst?and editor of Prep Football Report. "But Curry's?the best of the group. He's every bit as talented as (John) Elway,?(Dan) Marino and (Jeff) George when they were in high school."
With all his physical skills, Curry's most amazing asset is his?game-breaking poise under pressure, says Lemming. "He's more?of a threat on the run than in the pocket. It's tough for a defense?to come up with plays to stop Curry."
Coach Smith first took note of Curry when he was an eighth grader?and quarterback of Hampton's junior varsity.
"I saw him sprint to his left, then throw the ball 60 yards upfield?and hit a guy right in the hands," Smith recalls.
From that point on, Smith directed college recruiters to the JV?practice field.
On the basketball court, Curry's efforts to slow down, play with?more control and improve
his outside jump shot have helped his stock rise.
Last spring, he averaged 23.8 points, eight rebounds and seven?assists for Virginia's Class AAA champions.
Two weeks after taking that title, he took up AAU basketball.?And less than three days after returning in triumph from the AAU?nationals, Curry was sweating through two-a-day football practices.
Coach Smith's first practice begins at 5 a.m., a major sacrifice?for Curry, who likes to sleep late. "I figure if I can survive?this, I can survive anything," he says.
What Curry needs now is rest, time off to heal a bruised heel,?the result of playing on hard basketball surfaces.
A fork in the road
There might be other pressures. According to published
reports, Curry's coaches are mobilizing in different camps. Football?coach Smith wants him to go to Virginia, while basketball coach?Walter Brower wants Curry to pledge his allegiance to national?hoops powerhouse North Carolina.
There's ammunition for both camps. Curry's mother, his ailing?grandmother and three sisters live in North Carolina. Three former?teammates are on scholarship at Virginia: 1996 all-state receiver?Ahmad Hawkins; close friend Kenny Crawford, a transfer from VMI;?and 1995 Hampton defensive standout Donny Green.
Smith and Brower say reports of a feud are no more than media?hype.
"I'd never tell a kid where to go to school, just what to look?for before making a decision," says Smith.
"I'm not pushing for him to go anywhere. I want it to be
Ronald's decision," says the soft-spoken Brower. "I would hope?he'd go on and enjoy his senior year, enjoy being a high school?student."
Curry laughs at all the speculation. No, there was no hidden message?in his wearing North Carolina undershorts to football practice?last week. "They were a gift from my grandmother," he says.?"I wore them just to irritate Coach Smith."
He plans to commit during the early signing period in November.?"But at this point, I really haven't made up my mind. Right now,?I just want to go to college and play both sports as long as I?can."
Honor and excellence
Curry is intensely private and lets few people enter his emotional?realm.
Smith has "been like a father to me," Curry says. "He's helped?me handle a lot of problems. He's always been there for me."
Another influence was his cousin, Joemel Dennis, who was killed?in a robbery attempt four years ago.
"He was a good athlete, better than me," Curry says. "Every?position I play, he played. But he worked me, never let me outdo?him."
After grieving, Curry found another way to remember his cousin.?"I realized I could honor Joemel more by excelling in everything?I do."
Curry's legal guardian, 72-year-old Lillian Crawford, is close?to his heart.
And for good reason. Ronald and his younger cousin, Almondo, now?a junior at Hampton, were living with their grandmother when she?suffered a stroke three years ago.
When Curry's mom took his grandmother back to North Carolina with?her, Ronald and Almondo, another two-sport standout, looked for?a way to continue playing for Hampton.
Crawford, who had eight children, 36 grandchildren and 38 great?grandchildren, watched Curry grow up, playing ball in the street?with her great-grandson Kenny. She opened up her home.
"They're just like one of my chldren. There's nothing I wouldn't?do for them," says Crawford.
And Ronald Curry "goes right to my heart," Crawford says. "Sometimes,?if he gets extra money, he'll press $ 20 in my hand. He always?tells me, 'Big Momma, you're worth much more than that.
"Not a day goes by when he doesn't thank me for a meal, asks?how I feel, how was my day."
Curry feels deeply indebted to his caring guardian.
"Before, I went to church because other people made me go. Big?Momma taught me how to go there to praise and worship God. If?I do make it one day, she's the first person I'd want to take?care of."
Copyright 1997 Gannett Company, Inc.
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Sweet.
That certainly puts Da Bears "Super Bowl shuffle" on the trailer.
Got give some love to my man Henry "Killer" Lawrence.
Great stuff there Donavan. +Rep.
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Now there are a couple of guys who have it figured out.
The Men in Black intro they always play if no one's been...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V1Es78sIS8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V1Es78sIS8
LOL, peep around the 2:15 mark... Michael Bush VS. Chris Carr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-1vkSVf9y4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-1vkSVf9y4
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This is always very cool -- especially at an opener when everybody is ready to pumped up and ready for the first game of the season. Has a tendency to give guy chills!
Pt. 1
Al Davis, 78; Renegade Ruler of Raiders
By Donovan @#$%%(!!@
Special to the Oakland Tribune
Al Davis, the principal owner and managing general partner of the Oakland Raiders for more than four decades, and rebellious, loved-or-hated professional football trailblazer, died Wednesday. He was 78.
Best known for his heretical football philosophies, managerial unpredictability and dictatorial tendencies, Davis died of heart failure at his home in Oakland, according to an announcement from team headquarters in Alameda.
Davis, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992, crafted a revolutionary style of offense that repeatedly tested defenses with the deep pass, complemented by power running. Defensively, the upstart football visionary employed a physical, bump-and-run cornerback approach along with a massive front four meant to disrupt the quarterback.
His Raiders would parlay their aggressive style into three Super Bowl championships, all coming from 1976 to 1983. They would play in championship games all but two years from 1967 to 1977, had 16 straight winning seasons from 1965 to 1980 and had pro football's best winning percentage from 1963 to 2002.
Along the way, he became known for domineering his franchise with an iron fist.
“His life is the Raiders,” Steve Ortmayer, a 14-year assistant coach and director of football operations under Davis, told The New York Times earlier this year. “That's not a statement to be taken lightly, like a lot of people's life is what they do. It's to an extent that he has never taken a day off from the Raiders. Never.”
Indeed, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Davis is the only person to have worked in pro football as a player personnel assistant, an assistant coach, a head coach, a general manager, a league commissioner and the principal owner and chief executive officer of a National Football League franchise.
“It's tunnel vision, a tunnel life,” Davis once told ESPN Classic.
He is also perhaps best known for moving his Raiders from their loyal abode in Oakland at the turn of the 1980s. Despite 12 years of consecutive sellouts in the 53,000-capacity Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, on March 1, 1980, Davis made official his intent to abandon the league's second-smallest venue, signing a memorandum of agreement with the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission, which also brought the Raiders in as co-plaintiffs in a suit against the NFL, which tried to block the Raiders' move.
Eventually, a jury decided that the NFL's rule requiring the approval of 21 of 28 teams in order to move to a new stadium had violated federal antitrust laws. The team played its first season in southern California in 1982, setting the NFL precedent for locally beloved teams to similarly relocate, such as the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis and the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore as the Ravens.
“I hope Al Davis dies and goes to hell,” Raiders fan Nellie Ozen told reporters in 1982 after hearing word of the case's outcome.
“For the city, it's like losing an industry,” Scott Summerfield of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce told reporters. “And having the team snatched out from under the city is also a tremendous emotional blow to Oakland.”
The court battle itself was a long and bitter display pitting Davis against his old rival Pete Rozelle, who had been commissioner of the NFL dating back to when Davis, a “charming rogue,” as Rozelle called him, was his counterpart, heading the American Football League in 1966 when the two negotiated the two leagues' interaction culminating in the Super Bowl.
“Davis beat him on two fronts,” writer Frank Deford relayed to “Rozelle” author Jeff Davis. “First he's the guy who won the battle and forced the merger. And second, he got inside the tent and changed all the furniture around.”
That the Brooklyn, N.Y. native was attempting to stake a claim to Rozelle's original stomping ground couldn't have soothed the acrimonious history between the two.
“Al Davis was Rozelle's bête noire,” Sports Illustrated's Paul Zimmerman told Jeff Davis.
Of course, Los Angeles did not automatically afford the Raiders what Davis thought it would, as the league's joint partnership, committed to revenue sharing and parity, precluded Davis' organization from accruing the TV benefits he envisioned basking in, akin to those enjoyed by hands-off baseball's big-market tickets such as the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Consequently, coupled with mounting frustrations over perceived inadequacies of the enormous, and often embarrassingly sparsely filled Los Angeles Coliseum, the southern California disappointment led Davis to return the team in 1995 to Oakland.
The Raiders were welcomed back with open arms by most of the city, where nearby San Leandro's Ricky's Sports Theatre and Grill was once featured in Sports Illustrated because it kept its front, Raider-themed table carrying a sign reading “Reserved for Al Davis” the entire time the team was gone.
Whether in southern or northern California or in other parts of the country, however, over the course of a 57-year football career at the college and professional levels, Davis would also come to be known as a pioneer in opening the game's doors to minorities.
“I think Al Davis opened the game up for the African-American athlete,” Dennis Green told NFL Films.
Davis, who hired the NFL's first Latino head coach, Tom Flores, in 1979, and the league's first modern-era black head coach, Art Shell, in 1989, began broadening the game's racial horizons dating back to his days as an assistant coach at the University of Southern California from 1957 to 1959. There, he recruited Willie Wood, the first black quarterback in school history; he would later become part of its first interracial team-captain tandem.
“That was like changing the world,” Brad Pye Jr., former sports editor of the Los Angeles Sentinel, told NFL films. “The situation at USC prior to that period was like the University of Mississippi; blacks had as much of a chance excelling in athletics as blacks did in Mississippi before the civil rights movement. Al Davis went out and started recruiting blacks on a full scale.”
Ron Mix, the other part of USC's captaincy, recalls Davis' “prophetic” discussions with him about athletics serving to foster imminently better race relations in the country.
“Al's word was important,” former Grambling head coach Eddie Robinson told NFL Films in lauding Davis' open-mindedness toward players from black schools in the South. “If he told you something, it's that.”
In 1968, Davis made Tennessee State passer Eldridge Dickey the first black quarterback to be taken in the first round of a pro draft.
“There was so much against him for that,” Dickey told NFL Films. “Al was saying, 'Let it go! You're stifling the growth of the game!'”
More recently, Davis made Amy Trask the first woman to serve as chief executive of an NFL team.
Al Davis, 78; Renegade Ruler of Raiders
By Donovan @#$%%(!!@
Special to the Oakland Tribune
Al Davis, the principal owner and managing general partner of the Oakland Raiders for more than four decades, and rebellious, loved-or-hated professional football trailblazer, died Wednesday. He was 78.
Best known for his heretical football philosophies, managerial unpredictability and dictatorial tendencies, Davis died of heart failure at his home in Oakland, according to an announcement from team headquarters in Alameda.
Davis, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992, crafted a revolutionary style of offense that repeatedly tested defenses with the deep pass, complemented by power running. Defensively, the upstart football visionary employed a physical, bump-and-run cornerback approach along with a massive front four meant to disrupt the quarterback.
His Raiders would parlay their aggressive style into three Super Bowl championships, all coming from 1976 to 1983. They would play in championship games all but two years from 1967 to 1977, had 16 straight winning seasons from 1965 to 1980 and had pro football's best winning percentage from 1963 to 2002.
Along the way, he became known for domineering his franchise with an iron fist.
“His life is the Raiders,” Steve Ortmayer, a 14-year assistant coach and director of football operations under Davis, told The New York Times earlier this year. “That's not a statement to be taken lightly, like a lot of people's life is what they do. It's to an extent that he has never taken a day off from the Raiders. Never.”
Indeed, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Davis is the only person to have worked in pro football as a player personnel assistant, an assistant coach, a head coach, a general manager, a league commissioner and the principal owner and chief executive officer of a National Football League franchise.
“It's tunnel vision, a tunnel life,” Davis once told ESPN Classic.
He is also perhaps best known for moving his Raiders from their loyal abode in Oakland at the turn of the 1980s. Despite 12 years of consecutive sellouts in the 53,000-capacity Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, on March 1, 1980, Davis made official his intent to abandon the league's second-smallest venue, signing a memorandum of agreement with the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission, which also brought the Raiders in as co-plaintiffs in a suit against the NFL, which tried to block the Raiders' move.
Eventually, a jury decided that the NFL's rule requiring the approval of 21 of 28 teams in order to move to a new stadium had violated federal antitrust laws. The team played its first season in southern California in 1982, setting the NFL precedent for locally beloved teams to similarly relocate, such as the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis and the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore as the Ravens.
“I hope Al Davis dies and goes to hell,” Raiders fan Nellie Ozen told reporters in 1982 after hearing word of the case's outcome.
“For the city, it's like losing an industry,” Scott Summerfield of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce told reporters. “And having the team snatched out from under the city is also a tremendous emotional blow to Oakland.”
The court battle itself was a long and bitter display pitting Davis against his old rival Pete Rozelle, who had been commissioner of the NFL dating back to when Davis, a “charming rogue,” as Rozelle called him, was his counterpart, heading the American Football League in 1966 when the two negotiated the two leagues' interaction culminating in the Super Bowl.
“Davis beat him on two fronts,” writer Frank Deford relayed to “Rozelle” author Jeff Davis. “First he's the guy who won the battle and forced the merger. And second, he got inside the tent and changed all the furniture around.”
That the Brooklyn, N.Y. native was attempting to stake a claim to Rozelle's original stomping ground couldn't have soothed the acrimonious history between the two.
“Al Davis was Rozelle's bête noire,” Sports Illustrated's Paul Zimmerman told Jeff Davis.
Of course, Los Angeles did not automatically afford the Raiders what Davis thought it would, as the league's joint partnership, committed to revenue sharing and parity, precluded Davis' organization from accruing the TV benefits he envisioned basking in, akin to those enjoyed by hands-off baseball's big-market tickets such as the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Consequently, coupled with mounting frustrations over perceived inadequacies of the enormous, and often embarrassingly sparsely filled Los Angeles Coliseum, the southern California disappointment led Davis to return the team in 1995 to Oakland.
The Raiders were welcomed back with open arms by most of the city, where nearby San Leandro's Ricky's Sports Theatre and Grill was once featured in Sports Illustrated because it kept its front, Raider-themed table carrying a sign reading “Reserved for Al Davis” the entire time the team was gone.
Whether in southern or northern California or in other parts of the country, however, over the course of a 57-year football career at the college and professional levels, Davis would also come to be known as a pioneer in opening the game's doors to minorities.
“I think Al Davis opened the game up for the African-American athlete,” Dennis Green told NFL Films.
Davis, who hired the NFL's first Latino head coach, Tom Flores, in 1979, and the league's first modern-era black head coach, Art Shell, in 1989, began broadening the game's racial horizons dating back to his days as an assistant coach at the University of Southern California from 1957 to 1959. There, he recruited Willie Wood, the first black quarterback in school history; he would later become part of its first interracial team-captain tandem.
“That was like changing the world,” Brad Pye Jr., former sports editor of the Los Angeles Sentinel, told NFL films. “The situation at USC prior to that period was like the University of Mississippi; blacks had as much of a chance excelling in athletics as blacks did in Mississippi before the civil rights movement. Al Davis went out and started recruiting blacks on a full scale.”
Ron Mix, the other part of USC's captaincy, recalls Davis' “prophetic” discussions with him about athletics serving to foster imminently better race relations in the country.
“Al's word was important,” former Grambling head coach Eddie Robinson told NFL Films in lauding Davis' open-mindedness toward players from black schools in the South. “If he told you something, it's that.”
In 1968, Davis made Tennessee State passer Eldridge Dickey the first black quarterback to be taken in the first round of a pro draft.
“There was so much against him for that,” Dickey told NFL Films. “Al was saying, 'Let it go! You're stifling the growth of the game!'”
More recently, Davis made Amy Trask the first woman to serve as chief executive of an NFL team.
Pt. 2
“I just think he is absolutely unencumbered by prejudice of any type,” Trask told The New York Times.
In his first season as the Raiders' head coach and general manager in 1963, Al Davis led his team to a nine-win improvement from its previous year en route to being named the AFL's Coach of the Year and being called a “young coaching genius” by Sports Illustrated and “the most inventive mind in the country” by Scholastic Coach Magazine.
“Al thinks he's the smartest guy in football,” former San Diego Chargers coach Sid Gillman, Davis' boss in the early '60s, told reporters. “He isn't. But he is going to be.”
Davis took a brief departure to become commissioner of the AFL in 1966, when he would help broker the league's agreement to play the Super Bowl with the well-established NFL before returning to the Raiders as an owner and managing general partner in 1967.
He was able to buy a share of the team equal to what owners Wayne Valley and Ed McGah had for $18,500; in 1972, while Valley was at the Olympics in Munich, Davis convinced McGah to sign a contract that yielded him complete control of the team. Valley sued Davis but lost, and in 1976 sold his remaining share to Davis.
“We were not forced out,” Gladys Valley, Wayne's widow, told an interviewer in 1989. “We sold the team because he (Davis) is too disgusting to work with.”
Valley was not the only person to negatively regard crossing business paths with the lightning-rod owner called by the Los Angeles Times' Bill Plaschke “the most vindictive human being in the history of professional sports.”
In 1987, the small town of Irwindale, Calif. gave Davis $10 million in “good-faith” money thinking it would lure the Raiders there from the allegedly decaying and ill-suited Los Angeles Coliseum. The Raiders' flirtation with the town died, though, from political resistance in Los Angeles and the state capital in Sacramento. The team, of course, went back to Oakland soon afterward, and to this day Davis has never refunded the money.
“Losing that money hurt bad,” former Irwindale mayor Patricio Miranda told the Associated Press.
Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan maintains to this day that Davis still owes him $250,000 from his brief stint as Raiders head coach in the late '80s. Davis, the Denver Post reported, refused to pay Shanahan the money after he rejoined the Broncos.
The dispute, which took a bizarre twist in 1997 when Shanahan said he would forget about the alleged debt were Davis to donate a tantamount sum to the Oakland Unified School District, is technically still awaiting a Denver response to a Raiders appeal of a 1990 league ruling in Shanahan's favor. Shanahan has abstained from responding to the appeal, the Raiders say, because he, and other Broncos officials, perjured themselves at a hearing that led to the 17-year-old ruling by then-league commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
Swiftly undercutting anyone he perceived to wrong him, Davis fiercely wielded a vengeful hardheadedness that inspired Hunter S. Thompson to write that, “Darth Vader is a punk compared to Al Davis.”
The eccentric owner, known to show up to games draped in a solid-black warm-up suit, only to reappear after halftime wearing an all-white warm-up outfit, indeed was often a frightful and uncompromising force to competitors and even some of his own employees.
Super Bowl XVIII and 1985 NFL MVP Marcus Allen went into the Hall of Fame as a Kansas City Chief because of an intense, protracted feud between he and Davis that reached the point of Davis allegedly instructing coaches to reduce Allen's playing time.
The fallout between the two went public when Allen, during a 1992 Monday Night Football halftime interview with ABC's Al Michaels, said Davis had a personal vendetta to take his star out of the Los Angeles skyline.
“I think he's tried to ruin the latter part of my career, tried to devalue me,” Allen told Michaels. “I think he's trying to stop me from going to the Hall of Fame.”
Michaels himself in a 1997 MNF broadcast of a Raiders loss would say that Davis could “star in 'The Howard Hughes Story'” because of his perceived egomaniacal fall from grace, which made the team's trademark - as writer Jeff Davis deemed it - “Orwellian style, down to Big Brother-like slogans” such as “Commitment to Excellence,” “Pride and Poise” and “Just Win, Baby” ring hollow.
The “trash,” as Al Davis said “emanated” from Allen continued in Allen's 1997 autobiography, in which he wrote, “I hated Al Davis, not only for what he'd done to me but for the way he treated virtually everyone in the organization. ... The problem was, I stepped outside Al's box of control.”
Any calculated Davis grip on every football-related affair he could manipulate may have been most high-profile through the Allen saga, but its roots were decades old.
Sports Illustrated's Bud Shrake wrote in the mid-'60s that outside of Oakland,
“It is not certain where Al Davis would finish in a popularity contest among sharks, the mumps, the income tax and himself” and that if the electorate were other AFL coaches, “Davis would probably be third, edging out income tax in a thriller.”
Buddy Rupe, a lifelong friend of Davis rival Lamar Hunt, told “America's Game” author Michael MacCambridge that he'd call Davis “the biggest asshole that ever drew a breath of air.” The more reserved Hunt, Rupe said, would respond with, “Well, at times he can be difficult.”
Davis once cut Steve Hendrickson, Plaschke wrote, because his 2-year-old daughter unknowingly touched one of the team's Super Bowl trophies.
“Al has a very Machiavellian attitude,” former Raider Todd Christensen told Plaschke. “He would rather be feared than loved, because love is transitory, while fear is consistent.”
In line with attempting to never let anyone see team weaknesses, Davis administered a team policy that would be notoriously stingy toward the media and the rest of the league community, a practice still in effect to this day, as current head coach Lane Kiffin refused to divluge the team's starting quarterback until hours before this season's first game.
“I wouldn't admit a mistake even if I made one,” Davis told reporters after firing Shanahan in 1989.
Davis, who once told ESPN Classic he would rather be closer to his players than other owners, had a way of handling players' personalities often regarded as a laissez-faire approach meant to facilitate freedom and individuality leading to a sense of team camaraderie, and it often served to rankle his colleagues.
“He has a way of handling players that makes them feel like giants,” Raider Art Powell told reporters in 1966.
Davis would employ a renegade cast of misfits in the '60s and '70s, ranging from the erudite Gene Upshaw, who would occasionally fraternize with Black Panthers, to legendary partiers like John Matuszak, who, found wandering New Orleans' French Quarter the night before Super Bowl XV, said his role as the team's “enforcer” was to make sure no one else was violating team curfew.
“Al Davis lets the players be who they are,” Jim Plunkett once explained to an interviewer.
The defiant Davis, who ultimately only cared about his players winning on Sundays, was the only NFL owner who would allow Bo Jackson to continue to devote himself first to baseball while moonlighting in his off-season “hobby” called the NFL.
“I just think he is absolutely unencumbered by prejudice of any type,” Trask told The New York Times.
In his first season as the Raiders' head coach and general manager in 1963, Al Davis led his team to a nine-win improvement from its previous year en route to being named the AFL's Coach of the Year and being called a “young coaching genius” by Sports Illustrated and “the most inventive mind in the country” by Scholastic Coach Magazine.
“Al thinks he's the smartest guy in football,” former San Diego Chargers coach Sid Gillman, Davis' boss in the early '60s, told reporters. “He isn't. But he is going to be.”
Davis took a brief departure to become commissioner of the AFL in 1966, when he would help broker the league's agreement to play the Super Bowl with the well-established NFL before returning to the Raiders as an owner and managing general partner in 1967.
He was able to buy a share of the team equal to what owners Wayne Valley and Ed McGah had for $18,500; in 1972, while Valley was at the Olympics in Munich, Davis convinced McGah to sign a contract that yielded him complete control of the team. Valley sued Davis but lost, and in 1976 sold his remaining share to Davis.
“We were not forced out,” Gladys Valley, Wayne's widow, told an interviewer in 1989. “We sold the team because he (Davis) is too disgusting to work with.”
Valley was not the only person to negatively regard crossing business paths with the lightning-rod owner called by the Los Angeles Times' Bill Plaschke “the most vindictive human being in the history of professional sports.”
In 1987, the small town of Irwindale, Calif. gave Davis $10 million in “good-faith” money thinking it would lure the Raiders there from the allegedly decaying and ill-suited Los Angeles Coliseum. The Raiders' flirtation with the town died, though, from political resistance in Los Angeles and the state capital in Sacramento. The team, of course, went back to Oakland soon afterward, and to this day Davis has never refunded the money.
“Losing that money hurt bad,” former Irwindale mayor Patricio Miranda told the Associated Press.
Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan maintains to this day that Davis still owes him $250,000 from his brief stint as Raiders head coach in the late '80s. Davis, the Denver Post reported, refused to pay Shanahan the money after he rejoined the Broncos.
The dispute, which took a bizarre twist in 1997 when Shanahan said he would forget about the alleged debt were Davis to donate a tantamount sum to the Oakland Unified School District, is technically still awaiting a Denver response to a Raiders appeal of a 1990 league ruling in Shanahan's favor. Shanahan has abstained from responding to the appeal, the Raiders say, because he, and other Broncos officials, perjured themselves at a hearing that led to the 17-year-old ruling by then-league commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
Swiftly undercutting anyone he perceived to wrong him, Davis fiercely wielded a vengeful hardheadedness that inspired Hunter S. Thompson to write that, “Darth Vader is a punk compared to Al Davis.”
The eccentric owner, known to show up to games draped in a solid-black warm-up suit, only to reappear after halftime wearing an all-white warm-up outfit, indeed was often a frightful and uncompromising force to competitors and even some of his own employees.
Super Bowl XVIII and 1985 NFL MVP Marcus Allen went into the Hall of Fame as a Kansas City Chief because of an intense, protracted feud between he and Davis that reached the point of Davis allegedly instructing coaches to reduce Allen's playing time.
The fallout between the two went public when Allen, during a 1992 Monday Night Football halftime interview with ABC's Al Michaels, said Davis had a personal vendetta to take his star out of the Los Angeles skyline.
“I think he's tried to ruin the latter part of my career, tried to devalue me,” Allen told Michaels. “I think he's trying to stop me from going to the Hall of Fame.”
Michaels himself in a 1997 MNF broadcast of a Raiders loss would say that Davis could “star in 'The Howard Hughes Story'” because of his perceived egomaniacal fall from grace, which made the team's trademark - as writer Jeff Davis deemed it - “Orwellian style, down to Big Brother-like slogans” such as “Commitment to Excellence,” “Pride and Poise” and “Just Win, Baby” ring hollow.
The “trash,” as Al Davis said “emanated” from Allen continued in Allen's 1997 autobiography, in which he wrote, “I hated Al Davis, not only for what he'd done to me but for the way he treated virtually everyone in the organization. ... The problem was, I stepped outside Al's box of control.”
Any calculated Davis grip on every football-related affair he could manipulate may have been most high-profile through the Allen saga, but its roots were decades old.
Sports Illustrated's Bud Shrake wrote in the mid-'60s that outside of Oakland,
“It is not certain where Al Davis would finish in a popularity contest among sharks, the mumps, the income tax and himself” and that if the electorate were other AFL coaches, “Davis would probably be third, edging out income tax in a thriller.”
Buddy Rupe, a lifelong friend of Davis rival Lamar Hunt, told “America's Game” author Michael MacCambridge that he'd call Davis “the biggest asshole that ever drew a breath of air.” The more reserved Hunt, Rupe said, would respond with, “Well, at times he can be difficult.”
Davis once cut Steve Hendrickson, Plaschke wrote, because his 2-year-old daughter unknowingly touched one of the team's Super Bowl trophies.
“Al has a very Machiavellian attitude,” former Raider Todd Christensen told Plaschke. “He would rather be feared than loved, because love is transitory, while fear is consistent.”
In line with attempting to never let anyone see team weaknesses, Davis administered a team policy that would be notoriously stingy toward the media and the rest of the league community, a practice still in effect to this day, as current head coach Lane Kiffin refused to divluge the team's starting quarterback until hours before this season's first game.
“I wouldn't admit a mistake even if I made one,” Davis told reporters after firing Shanahan in 1989.
Davis, who once told ESPN Classic he would rather be closer to his players than other owners, had a way of handling players' personalities often regarded as a laissez-faire approach meant to facilitate freedom and individuality leading to a sense of team camaraderie, and it often served to rankle his colleagues.
“He has a way of handling players that makes them feel like giants,” Raider Art Powell told reporters in 1966.
Davis would employ a renegade cast of misfits in the '60s and '70s, ranging from the erudite Gene Upshaw, who would occasionally fraternize with Black Panthers, to legendary partiers like John Matuszak, who, found wandering New Orleans' French Quarter the night before Super Bowl XV, said his role as the team's “enforcer” was to make sure no one else was violating team curfew.
“Al Davis lets the players be who they are,” Jim Plunkett once explained to an interviewer.
The defiant Davis, who ultimately only cared about his players winning on Sundays, was the only NFL owner who would allow Bo Jackson to continue to devote himself first to baseball while moonlighting in his off-season “hobby” called the NFL.