Former Oakland Raiders coach and owner Al Davis died today at the age of 82. Wanted to start this thread and see what everyone thought of this maverick since ESPN is going into this mode for the next 24-48 hours...
My thoughts: Never could stand the guy. He was a crusty old fart whose handling of the early rounds of the 2009 NFL Draft was the most perplexing thing I have seen in any draft in my lifetime. However, he was instrumental in the AFL's development in the 1960s and the NFL would probably not be where it is today w/out his help with the merger and his influence as an owner. For that he had my respect, as painful as it was.
From '63 to 2002 or so, the Raiders were definitely one of the better NFL(AFL) franchises. Since then, I think he lost a little of his decision making capability. He was a maverick.