The Art Shell Situation

Why not take a look at the ensuing off-season? Our beloved Oakland Raiders sit at 2-12, and our next two games are against teams that are "competing" for playoff spots. What else can we do besides try to figure out what Al Davis is thinking? If you saw Al Davis being interviewed following the St. Louis Rams loss, you saw that Al Davis still has it. It was a fantastic thing to watch, and you can't help but to get entranced as he talks football. But the most difficult thing to do is to try to figure out what hints, if any, Al Davis is giving out in his interviews. For instance, as Mr. Davis ended the interview he told the reporters, "I'm sure we'll meet up real soon."

Some people are taking that phrase and saying that it means their will be a press conference called to announce the firing of Art Shell at the end of the season. Adam Schefter of NFL Network recently stated that an "inside source" told him that Al Davis would fire Art Shell at the end of the season. The Raiders fired back at Schefter because of his statement, but did not directly deny his story. So what does all this mean? It means you should be taking everything you hear regarding Art Shell with a grain of salt.

Adam Schefter covered the Denver Broncos for the Denver Post for 15 years. While I doubt he is trying to do anything to hurt the Raiders, i.e. starting false rumors to cause turmoil within the team, he could simply be trying to take a shot in the dark at a breaking story and see if it develops. It is not completely out of the realm of possibility that Shell could be fired, and Schefter could get credit for breaking that story if it does happen. If you saw the interview, you may have noticed that Schefter left room for error, saying in essence that Al Davis could change his mind.

I think it is more likely that Shell stays on for at least another year. While I am somewhat displeased with some of his personnel decisions, I think it could be even more disastrous for the Raiders as a whole if they do not give Art a chance to turn this thing around. The Raiders have to understand that they cannot keep going through coaches like this. If Shell is fired, it would mean that the Raiders have fired three coaches in 5 years. That is unacceptable.

Listen, I'm not going to lie. I would be all for Al Davis firing Art Shell. For a while there, I had forgotten why I, and so many other Raider fans, wanted him fired back in 1994. He is a terrible people person. Some would argue that he is a good disciplinarian, but I would rather have someone who gets the players respect than someone who is always getting into confrontations with them. He is also loyal to a fault, see Tom Walsh. You can only wonder, with the defense playing like it is, what this team's record would be if Al hadn't been so quick to fire Norv Turner. Our offensive personnel was basically the same, yet the offense has taken such a huge step backwards. Not that I feel that Norv was a good coach, but I think he could have been successful with this defense. Which brings me to this point. I am o.k. with Al firing Art, but he cannot and should not do it without having a plan of succession in mind. We cannot have a repeat of the debacle that was our coaching search last year.