Life and Legacy of Al Davis: Colorblind
It is without a doubt that Al Davis was a major player in not only creating the modern NFL but being involved as AFL Commissioner for the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, but as a man who rebuilt the Raiders from the ground up.
In this series, we look back at the life and legacy of Al Davis.
Al is Colorblind
According to Forbes, in 1966, Davis bought 10 percent interest in the Oakland Raiders for $18,500, or a little over $147,000 adjusted for inflation.
By doing so, it opened up Davis to the access he really wanted in the Raiders organization: rebuilding.
And rebuilding did he do.
But Davis didn’t rebuild by just getting any players. No, he was known to be ahead of his time.
As Raider Maven’s own Tom LaMarre said on the “What it Means to be a Raider” podcast, “Al Davis, he was colorblind and that was one of the reasons why he was able to turn the Raiders around. The Raiders became a powerhouse.”
Davis went to schools other teams wouldn’t look into and players other teams would ignore.
In 1967, Davis traveled to the south and drafted guard and future Hall-of-Famer Gene Upshaw from Texas A&I (now known as Texas A&M-Kingsville) in the first round.
In 1968, Davis drafted Tennessee State’s Eldridge Dickey in the first round, the first black quarterback to be drafted in the first round in pro football history. In the third round, Davis drafted future Hall of Fame tackle Art Shell from Maryland State.
In 1979, Davis hired Tom Flores as his new head coach, replacing John Madden. Flores became only the second Latino head coach in pro football history. He would become the first minority head coach to win a Super Bowl in Super Bowl XV.
That same year, Davis turned Hispanic quarterback Jim Plunkett, who was cut by the San Francisco 49ers in 1978, into a Super Bowl-winning quarterback in Super Bowl XV. It was also the first time that a team quarterbacked by a minority won the Super Bowl.
In 1989, Davis hired Shell as the head coach for the Raiders, making Shell the first black NFL coach in the modern era.
Davis did not see color nor cared to see color. He was a man who saw pure talent on the field and would make a judgment based on talent alone.
As Davis said in a press conference when he hired Shell in ’89: “I got the best guy. End of story.”
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