Buckle up folks, because this afternoon Al Davis gave his side of the Lane Kiffin story and my oh my, did Davis ever go off. But in a pretty intelligent and convincing way. So let's get to it.

First off, Davis directly accused Kiffin of trying to get himself fired (and therefore still get paid) by complaining constantly about his authority in the organization.

According to Deadspin, Davis during the press conference revealed a letter (which he actually put on an overhead projector for the press corps) that he wrote to Kiffin prior to the Kansas City game outlining the former coach's faults and his bad personnel moves. The letter was prompted by one of Kiffin’s continual comments that he had no involvement in the defense.

Davis did reveal that while while Kiffin did have much say in terms of defense, he had a great deal of control on offense. Davis said that Kiffin called every play on offense during his time with the team, and that he split the play-calling duties with an unnamed assistant coach on Sunday against the Chargers.

But it gets more interesting

According to Pro Football Talk, after the Week 3 loss to the Bills, Davis said that he asked Kiffin point-blank why he didn’t use his final two time outs in the game, allowing the Bills to end the game on a field goal with no time remaining. Definitely a valid point. 


Apparently the Davis/Kiffin feud has been going on for 7 months, and started because Kiffin wanted his father, Monte Kiffin, to run the Raiders defense. Davis claimed that the Raiders opted not to pursue the elder Kiffin because he was under contract with the Bucs.

Davis also said that Lane Kiffin didn't want to draft JaMarcus Russell (which actually probably would have been the right thing to do at this point).

And last of all, in regards to reports that Kiffin was presented with a letter of resignation last season, Davis said that the document was an attempt to resolve Kiffin’s situation if he were to get another job, specifically at the college level (Kiffin actually did want the Arkansas job, which went to Bobby Petrino).  According to Pro Football Talk, Davis said that Kiffin, whom he called a “professional liar,” then turned that into a claim that Davis had presented him with a resignation letter.

And I guess that's pretty much it. But as crazy as Al Davis may have appaeared during this press conference, you can't exactly say he didn't come prepared. He brought the heat, to say the least.

By the way, we should all recognize that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Kiffin isn't as innocent as he appears, nor is Davis as crazy as he appears. And this thing is far from being over. Davis, as of right now, owes Kiffin $3.5 million, which Davis is refusing to pay.

The good news now is that at least the Raiders on the field no longer have anything to worry about. Well, except constantly losing.

Al Davis want to get a few things off his chest [Deadspin]
Davis accuses Kiffin of lying, propoganda [PFT]