Of course, most posters here know little or nothing as to the true nature of the Raiders, since these same posters are too young to have witnessed the rise of the Raiders through the 60′s, 70′s, the glory of winning their 2nd and 3rd Superbowls in 81′ and 83′ respectively, and then the Raiders’ decline.

Much of the Raiders success in their crescendo of the 80′s came from the remarkable abilities of Marcus Allen. Much has been made of the feud between Davis and Allen, yet little is known of the factual basis of that feud, such a Marcus had an affair with OJ Simpson’s wife Nicole Brown, which probably was untrue.

I, myself, talked once with Marcus Allen at the Hamburger Hamlet in Brentwood, in LA. He was a great guy, very friendly and open; I saw him having dinner there alone and approached his table. I thanked him for his great running and he invited me to sit down, and bought me a Heineken beer. We chatted for about 15 minutes. This was after Bo Jackson joined the team.

The following excerpt illuminates the true cause of the feud between Allen and Davis, and underscores what I have said about Davis numerous times. After Coach Flores retired in 1987 and Allen left to play for the Chiefs, the Raiders began their decline which has not yet bottomed out.

“Socially Allen traveled in lofty circles. He was a regular guest at Simpson’s Brentwood estate with Al Cowlings and other sports luminaries such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ahmad Rashad, and Lynn Swann. But his success was leading him to trouble as he gained more attention from the media and the Raiders team and owner got less. Raiders maverick owner Al Davis was becoming increasingly aware that one of his players was being singled out above the team. Allen continued his individual brilliance the following year in 1984, leading the league in touchdowns with 18 and gaining 1,168 yards, but the Raiders faltered. By the end of the season Davis was openly calling Allen a selfish player to his coaching staff.”

The Raiders had little success since then, notwithstanding the Gruden years. AD got rid of Gruden, of course, since Gruden had garnered more attention than AD, a situation the rapidly declining AD could never tolerate. The subsequent decade saw Raiders’ management guided by AD, a literal madman in the throes of dementia.

I am shocked but not surprised that Allen had the class to light the torch this afternoon. Personally, I would have pissed on it and extinguished it if I were Allen. But Allen has way too much class to do that.

Now the current ills of the club are still on Raider management and that management must be extinguished.

Fire the freakish spawn and his spawnor. Wash away AD (BFH) forever.