Vacchiano: Soap opera in Oakland continues

The Oakland Raiders, a once-proud franchise, hammered the woeful Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. Their top rookie, running back Darren McFadden, even had a breakout performance. For a team that’s been struggling for years, it was a feel-good win.
 
“I'm excited the way our staff and our players prepared this week,” Raiders coach Lane Kiffin said after the big victory. “If I'm here, we'll do the same next week.”
 
That’s right, he said “if,” which is just about all you need to know about the dysfunctional Raiders franchise. They’ve become the laughingstock of the league under the unstable stewardship of aging Al Davis.
 
Only nobody is laughing, because the situation is so sad.
 
According to reports out of the Oakland-San Francisco area, Kiffin is about to be fired. It could be minutes from now, or hours, or days, or even weeks. It all depends on the unpredictable whim of Davis. Kiffin was always a questionable hire, as Davis passed over candidates with actual experience for a little-known college assistant. It just took Davis a couple of years to see the error of his ways.
 
Of course, it wouldn’t be like Davis to simply make a change in a professional and orderly fashion. First he had to let Kiffin twist all offseason, when just about everyone in the NFL knew his days were numbered. Then he brought him back to what surely was a no-win situation. Then it grew worse when Davis apparently took some remarkable steps to undermine his own coach.
 
According to reports, it all started after the Raiders lost their opening game against the Broncos, 41-14. Kiffin clearly wasn’t happy with the scheme of the defense as designed by his defensive coordinator, Rob Ryan. In a move that sure looked like he was trying to get himself fired, he exposed a behind-the scenes conspiracy only a disgruntled Raiders fan could believe.

“Do I have the exact belief we do on defense? No,” Kiffin said. “But it’s hard to have the exact belief that we do. So, it is what it is. Rob and the owner are always in communication. For the most part, I let Rob do his thing over there. He has a belief in certain things and he has a conversation with the owner about that.”

Davis, apparently, was furious at Kiffin for the way he went public with his beliefs. So, according to reports, Davis ordered Ryan to publicly refute his immediate boss — which he did with a long, profanity-laced tirade.

A feud between a head coach and his defensive coordinator? Another between the head coach and the owner? An alliance between the owner and the defensive coordinator?

Yeah, that seems about right in Davis’ weird world.

So at 1-1, coming off one of their biggest wins in years, with finally a sense of optimism about their future, Davis seems content to throw it all away. Changing the coach would be easy, and might even end up as a positive solution to the mess. But it doesn’t help to let a dead coach keep walking and drag this ugly divorce out.

Meanwhile, Ryan apparently is in line to be Kiffin’s replacement, but why in the world would he want this job? Remember a few years ago when Sean Payton turned down Davis’ offer to coach the Raiders? Bobby Petrino turned him down twice, too.

Why would any coach with even a tiny bit of credibility and qualifications ever tell Davis “Yes”?

And why would any player want to play in the Black Hole, which actually is becoming a Black Hole these days? Is it worth all the millions to get cast as a bit player in a soap opera that has no chance of winning, and whose ratings will soon be in a steep decline? Surely it’s worth taking a little less money for a taste of some sanity and a chance to win.

Then again, maybe Davis really does have a plan to rescue his fading franchise. But if he does he’s the only one who can see it. Undermining his own head coach and then letting him dangle makes little sense on any level. It’s vindictive. It’s unprofessional.

And it’s no way to run a professional team.

Ralph Vacchiano is the author of Eli Manning: The Making of a Quarterback, which is available for purchase here.

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