In November, I wrote an item about how Raiders coach Lane Kiffin wanted out, about his difficulties with Al Davis. I was bombarded with e-mails from Raiders’ loyalists essentially telling me I was nuts and questioning my sources.

I expect I’ll be flooded with apologies this week now that the Kiffin/Davis feud had boiled into the open.

But the fact is the problems between the two date almost back to the day when Kiffin was hired a year ago, and they stem largely from young Kiffin’s eagerness to take the job that he took Davis’ word on certain promises about his responsibilities.

Kiffin should have known better. He should have asked his dad’s boss, Jon Gruden, who could have told him how he agreed to a new contract in 2001, but then, when it came back to him for a signature, much of it had been changed.

Even Art Shell, a long-time Davis favorite, learned the lesson last year but was spared because contract language protected him. After firing Shell, Davis wanted him to work out the next year as the team’s offensive line coach, but language in Shell’s contract specifically outlined his duties as the head coach.

Davis had to pay Shell off.

Now, Davis is trying to avoid paying off Kiffin, so he is trying to make his coach so miserable that he will quit after just one season. Published reports say Kiffin has two years at $2 million a year remaining on his contract, but a team source said there’s only one year remaining, at $1.7 million.

Logically – and when did logic ever apply to the Raiders – this must end with either a firing or a resignation because Davis and Kiffin can’t work together and neither can Kiffin and Rob Ryan, the defensive coordinator he tried to fire before Davis overrued him.

But Davis has the Raiders so screwed up now that anything and possible and I wouldn’t even want to hazard a guess. Just to be devilish, maybe Davis retains Kiffin, and makes everyone even more miserable than they already are. You would not expect that to be the case, but you wouldn’t have expected what already has happened, either.