Al Davis the owner and pioneer of Raider nation has died, this is a sad day for us Raider fans! Just when I thought we were starting to turn the team around too he won’t be around to see it!
Al Davis, the flamboyant NFL franchise owner who brought and then removed the Raiders from Los Angeles, has died at the age of 82. Davis passed away in his home in Oakland on Saturday morning. No cause of death was announced, although he had been in declining health recently.
Since 1966, Davis had either led or owned the Raiders, making him the longest-running football boss in NFL history. Under his direction, the team became one of the most successful in NFL history with 13 division championships between 1967 and 1985. In 1980, Davis was blocked by the NFL from moving the Raiders from Oakland to LA. He sued and won an anti-trust case and in 1982, the Raiders moved into the venerable Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. But in 1995, Davis moved the team back to the Bay Area after being denied permission to build a new luxury football stadium in Inglewood. Davis was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1992.