Raiders finally fire Kiffin

[johnerotten]

rofl,he just called chris mortensen a "professional liar".

[BleedBurgundy]

Al Davis is batshit crazy. My wife, who knows nothing about football, just walked in and asked, "Who's the crazy old man?"

[djnemo65]

What a meltdown over there. Did you guys see the video of our old friend Tim "Zorn is the worst hire ever" Kawakami almost getting beaten up at a press conference by a Raiders goon/official? Truly amazing stuff. What's better is that, according to Kawakami, this isn't even the most bizarre thing that's happened over there. He relates this little exchange, which followed his questioning of the Kiffin hire: Al didn't like that (he asked about Kiffin) and said: 'I'll bet you don't even know who Deng Xiaoping was.' I was like, what? What does that have to do with anything? Al pressed it. 'Who is Deng Xiaoping?' So I thought for a minute, and said, 'Well, if I'm not mistaken, wasn't he the General Secretary of the Chinese government during the Tiananmen Square massacre?' And Al repiles, 'But what can you tell me about him other than that? See? You don't even know anything about your own culture.' I said, 'Al, I'm Japanese-American, not Chinese.' And Al said, 'Ohh, geez. I bet you're going to kill me on that now.' It all happened in front of about 20 reporters, so I didn't have to.

I would be more outraged about the state of the Raiders if I wasn't having so much fun watching that ship sink.

But the saddest thing in this, I think, is that the football team is out there fighting against quality competition, and their reward is having to put up with Count Dracula and his crony knights of evil.

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by djnemo65

What a meltdown over there. Did you guys see the video of our old friend Tim "Zorn is the worst hire ever" Kawakami almost getting beaten up at a press conference by a Raiders goon/official? Truly amazing stuff. What's better is that, according to Kawakami, this isn't even the most bizarre thing that's happened over there. He relates this little exchange, which followed his questioning of the Kiffin hire: Al didn't like that (he asked about Kiffin) and said: 'I'll bet you don't even know who Deng Xiaoping was.' I was like, what? What does that have to do with anything? Al pressed it. 'Who is Deng Xiaoping?' So I thought for a minute, and said, 'Well, if I'm not mistaken, wasn't he the General Secretary of the Chinese government during the Tiananmen Square massacre?' And Al repiles, 'But what can you tell me about him other than that? See? You don't even know anything about your own culture.' I said, 'Al, I'm Japanese-American, not Chinese.' And Al said, 'Ohh, geez. I bet you're going to kill me on that now.' It all happened in front of about 20 reporters, so I didn't have to.

I would be more outraged about the state of the Raiders if I wasn't having so much fun watching that ship sink.

But the saddest thing in this, I think, is that the football team is out there fighting against quality competition, and their reward is having to put up with Count Dracula and his crony knights of evil.

Great post. Excellent case in point of what a circus that organization has become.

On a side- Kawakami, eat crow about the Zorn hating.

[SmootSmack]

I don't know if I heard this right. And I have to believe I didn't. But apparently Al Davis didn't let Kiffin attend the defensive meetings? What the....?!!

[JLee9718]

Al Davis messed up. He passed on Zorn, as did a lot of other people. He can't have him now, and he knows it. Big Al can have Marty!

[saden1]

Al side of the story.

[saden1]

I don't know if I believe what Al is saying but boy does Lane Kiffin sound like a douche bag.

[JoeRedskin]

I listened to Al's press conference. His story differs significantly from that being reported in the press (mainly that Kiffin was in complete charge of the team, that he and Kiffen had been on speaking terms, that Kiffin wanted to hire his dad away from Tampa).

I still haven't heard Kiffin's story straight from Kiffin - it has all been through 2nd hand sources AND I remember reading a commentator saying a couple weeks ago that Kiffin was rumour mongering. So there may be some truth to some of Al's statements. I suspect, however, that there is also quite a bit of spin.

Regardless, this is gonna go to litigation and it is gonna get ugly.

[djnemo65]

Well, the problem with Al's side is that Kiffin is not the first coach/GM to allege that these things go on over there. Al has no credibility at this point. He's going to have a tough time next year even finding someone to take the job. He might have to pull a Gerry Faust and dip into the high school ranks.

[saden1]

Originally Posted by djnemo65

Well, the problem with Al's side is that Kiffin is not the first coach/GM to allege that these things go on over there. Al has no credibility at this point. He's going to have a tough time next year even finding someone to take the job. He might have to pull a Gerry Faust and dip into the high school ranks.

I'm guessing he'll probably promote Rob Ryan to head coach and keep it that way.

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by djnemo65

Well, the problem with Al's side is that Kiffin is not the first coach/GM to allege that these things go on over there. Al has no credibility at this point. He's going to have a tough time next year even finding someone to take the job. He might have to pull a Gerry Faust and dip into the high school ranks.

doubt it. if he's paying 2mill a year, someone's greed and ego will short circuit their better judgment.

I'd be a disaster as a head coach, but for that much money, I could live with a year of turmoil.

[SBXVII]

I know they put someone else in place whether intrim or not ....they should have tried to hire that ex-Giant coach we almost hired. LOL. He's pretty despirit at this point having been teased with our head coaching job. Go Fassel. LoL

[johnerotten]

getting fired ftom oakland did wonders for mike shanahan.i wonder why he did'nt ever sue ole splinter for not paying him?to this day,he never has.

[MTK]

Sorry there's no way I believe a word that Davis says on this. As someone said he's batshit crazy and he's the ultimate control freak. I'm guessing Kiffin didn't bow to his every word and it pissed him off, and now the cheap bastard is trying to get out of paying his contract. Absolutely pathetic.