Papa: Let me be one of the first to wish you Happy Birthday.

Davis: Well, it will be happy when we win. But it’s a milestone, obviously, 80, and usually at this time of the year, every fifth, from 75, 80, I’ve held a nice party in Las Vegas but I felt this year, predicated on the economy, that we would just whittle it down to a few friends for dinner, and hold off because we didn’t want to flaunt when everyone else is having trouble financially and I thought it was best to do it that way. But in any event, thank you very much.

Papa: My wife and I were thrilled to be at your 75th, and it was a tremendous function and you showed a lot of generosity to us and to those closest to you. Let’s start at the beginning, we’re going to tell the story of one of the most fascinating lives not only in the history of professional football but all of American sport, July 4, 1929, Brockton, Mass., the home of Rocky Mariciano, the great champion, and you, sir. How old were you when you moved from Brockton, to Brooklyn?

Davis: We came to Brooklyn, New York, when, when I was 5 years old, and my dad was a manufacturer. He was an entrepreneur, he manufactured raincoats, and he was in real estate, and he was moving the raincoat business, in those days, to the south, because of the course of labor, and things like that. Some of the factories stopped in Baltimore, some stopped in North Carolina. But, my mother felt that we ought to stop a little further north, so we chose Brooklyn, New York. The memories are great, I lived there until I was about 16. My dad had a home in Long Beach, Long Island, and we were moving from Brooklyn to Long Beach, to Brooklyn, to Long Beach, but by the time I was ready to go to college, which I was about 17 years old. I had already committed to move to Long Beach, and so I went on to college.

Papa: Tell me about Brooklyn in those days. You mentioned some of the names to me, the great Don McMahon, who later pitched in the major leagues, with the Atlanta Braves, was a childhood friend of yours, and the Torre family, I think you were closer to Frank than Joe, and some of the people, before you got to Erasmus Hall, even that you knew growing up in Brooklyn.

Davis: Well, let me make a point to you. Brooklyn was a very diverse place. We had all the ethnic groups that you could possibly think of. It was great street learning. And right next to my house, there was a park called Lincoln Terrace Park. And it was a tough park. It really was. Whoever played in that park, you had to be a survivor. I can only tell you the story, and I did the eulogy of Sugar Ray Robinson, when he died, in Los Angeles, and one of the other eulogists, one of the other persons who spoke, was Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson and Don King were there. And we talking. And I told Mike, who was about 20 years younger than I am, `Mike, I played in Lincoln Terrace Park, and I tell you what, it was tough.’ And he said, `What do you mean you played in Lincoln Terrace?’ And I said, `I used to play there, every day and night, unless I went to practice . . . ‘

Papa: Baseball, basketball, football?

Davis: Baseball, basketball and football, and I said, `I owned that park, Mike.’ And he turned to Don King and said, `This guy is an S-O-B, he’s a tough S-O-B.’ If he can come out alive out of that park, he must be a tough S-O-B. I remember it so vividly, my public school, my junior high school was called Winthrop Junior High School. We had to march when we were in school to our classes. We had to wear a white shirt and a red tie. And anyone who went to Winthrop will remember that. And then, we were being recruited to go to high schools, and I went to Erasmus Hall High School, with the idea of playing basketball. That was the dream, to play for Al Badain, at Erasmus Hall High School. And the memories are great, I made a lot of friends. Yes, as you mentioned, a guy, McMahon, wa son the baseball team, I wish he were alive today. We used to laugh like all heck. The Torre brothers were big, they played for Madison, and Joe, I think, played for Brooklyn Prep. And there are so many great ones who went to Erasmus. Let me start with Bob Tisch, who owned the Giants. Jerry Reinsdorf, who owned the White Sox and the Chicago Bulls. Sam Rutigliano, who coached the Cleveland Browns. Sid Luckman, the Hall of Fame quarterback for the Chicago Bears. Barbra Streisand, you have to fill Barbara in because she probably is the No. 1 celebrity from that school. And Lanie Kazan, we just had a litany of great performers, great people.

Papa: You mentioned you played for the great Al Badain, on the basketball team, and you played all the sports, but football, was the one, and you stated when you were 18, you felt you had a deep understanding of the game of football. Why do you feel that you saw football better than the other sports.

Davis: Well, I really don’t know that I saw it better. It interested me more. When I was 18, I was already in college. I went to college when I was 17 years old. At Erasmus, we ran a single wing. At Syracuse we ran a single wing and then Ben Schwartzwalder came and we ran a single wing, unbalanced line, and I just understand that there was more to it than running the football. There was a passing game. And I saw it, and I believed it, and a lot of people, I can remember Luke LaPorte, was one of our teammates, we were taking a class in football in the summer, and Luke came over to me after the class and looked at some passes that I had put up on the blackboard for coach Schwartzwalder’s assistant coaches, who were coaching the class to see, and he said, `Can you run that in high school?’ And I said, `High school? You can run this in pro football.’

Note: The rest of the interview is expected to be shown in the coming weeks. The first portion was aired in advance of Davis’ 80th birthday on the Fourth of July.

Tonight’s excerpt will deal mostly with Davis’ youth growing up in Brooklyn and his roots in football.

Here’s a link to Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.

– Can Ted Tollner and Paul Hackett provide the kind of stability and teaching JaMarcus Russell needs to build on his final six games of the 2009 season?

Tollner, at the behest of Tom Cable, was said to have added deeper routes and that played to Russell’s strength, although there was little in the way of evidence to support that in public practices.

Russell went through three playcallers in his first year as a starter and needs to identify himself this year as a player who can carry not only a passing game, but an entire team.

– What is Cable’s plan for the ascension of Michael Bush? I know, wise guys, it’s Al Davis who decides. Not so fast. Cable is on what Lane Kiffin called the “honeymoon” afforded to new Raiders head coaches.

Lance was right on this one. New coaches get a lot of rope, just enough to usually hang themselves, in many cases. Getting the sort of performance out of Bush the Raiders got in the season finale is something Davis wants to see.

It’s up to Cable to make it happen and in the process de-emphasize Justin Fargas.

– Assuming Mario Henderson is the left tackle, when does Cable make the move with Khalif Barnes to the right side? He said at one point he could do it as late as preseason games and everything would be fine.

I’ll defer to his expertise along the offensive line, but that seems a little late in the game when the issue is protecting the franchise quarterback.

– How good is new line coach Jim Michalczik? The running game will carry this team, and Cable as a head coach appears to be much more of a delegator than the man who attempted to wear all hats as an interim head coach.

– Can the Raiders’ woeful run defense be repaired with more due diligence with regard to discipline, rather than a major change in personnel and philosophy? No way to tell during no-contact practices in the offseason.

You’re up, John Marshall.

– Jeff Garcia, Lorenzo Neal and Greg Ellis are in the house. Are their teammates listening? Warren Sapp has his doubts, as expressed to Peter King.

Sapp is fond of exaggerating to make a point, occasionally stretching the bounds of credibility, but it’s true a lot of young players simply don’t want to hear it.

Jerry Rice even attended the Raiders final OTA. If the receiving corps was stifling a group yawn, there was no mention of it on the Raiders’ Twitter account.

– Will Darrius Heyward-Bey and Mike Mitchell be healthy enough come training camp to make a run at being contributors in the first quarter of the season? They’ve both been hampered by bad hamstrings pretty much since their first minicamp.

– What roles do Javon Walker and Derrick Burgess have with the 2009 Raiders?

Walker has been around, and according to Florida rookie Louis Murphy, has even been helpful as he recovers from the knee surgery which surprised his employer. Burgess has been a no-show and in the final year of his contract.

Walker is getting his payday regardless on a renegotiated contract, the question is whether he can still be anything remotely approaching the receiver he once was. The Raiders may be waiting with Burgess to see if any team loses a pass rusher during training camp in order to get the maximum in trade value.

There appears to be no such mystery with Andrew Walter, who should be a camp arm along with Danny Southwick until the one-time quarterback of the future gets his exit visa.

– Can the Raiders get anything out of Michael Huff?

The No. 7 overall pick in 2006 is nearing bust status. Some say he’s already there. Huff remains an infuriating step late in coverage and isn’t the kind of physical presence Oakland likes in its safeties. Tyvon Branch and Mitchell push him further down the ladder.

– Will Nnamdi Asomugha get the chance to shadow the opponent’s top receiver? He seems to think there’s a chance it could happen on occasion.

– Is Chris Johnson too good to be true? Cornerbacks simply don’t identify themselves as elite at age 29. The Raiders are pinching themselves on this one, signing him to a lucrative four-year contract that they’ve never announced to this day, perhaps concerned Johnson’s performance after the DeAngelo Hall fiasco was a mirage.

A front line veteran even asked me if I thought there was a chance Garcia could end up starting.

The answer? Not unless Russell does a faceplant of major proportions. The Raiders passing game is still evolving with a new coordinator and quarterback coach, and Russell’s last six games of the 2008 season carry considerably more weight than some shaky non-contact practices.

– The deeper pass routes which Tom Cable said will be a part of the 2009 Raiders never manifested themselves in a public setting. Perhaps Russell and Co. were lighting it up at the other two-thirds of the OTAs where the media wasn’t present, but that’s not the way to bet.

– For the most part, the Darren McFadden who took the field for the Raiders as a rookie was a shell of himself. The explosion is back, and the things McFadden ought to be able to accomplish catching passes out of the backfield and in the slot should give the Raiders something to hang their hat on in the passing game until the deep game comes around.

McFadden and Michael Bush, who looks imposing and swift in no-contact situations, give the Raiders two backs who can do some real damage in the passing game.

– Darrius Heyward-Bey and Mike Mitchell are well behind the curve.

The two guys who needed the offseason the most accomplished the least through no fault of their own. For Heyward-Bey, it was a hamstring issue that’s gone on for some five weeks. If it’s any consolation for Raiders fans, the 49ers Michael Crabtree hasn’t practiced at all as a stress fracture heals.

For Mitchell, it’s the NFL rule which wouldn’t allow him to participate until school was out at Ohio University, as well as a hamstring issue.

– Many Raiders actually believe voluntary minicamps are voluntary. Derrick Burgess wasn’t around, of course, but at various times Raiders such as Nnamdi Asomugha, Chris Johnson, Tommy Kelly, Terdell Sands, Jeff Garcia and Michael Huff said thanks, but no thanks.

As for Shane Lechler and Sebastian Janikowski . . . fore!

Garcia missed because of the birth of his son. Asomugha can be excused because he was the best player on the field every moment he was there.

– If Burgess isn’t traded, he ought to be prepared for fewer snaps as a pass rush specialist. Greg Ellis moved directly into the starting lineup at left end and according to the Dallas Morning News got a three-year contract worth $10 million.

This could be a good thing. A fresh Burgess looking for a big salary next season would produce double-digit sacks.

– Don’t worry about Zach Miller. Miller had sports hernia surgery in the offseason, but when he returned, he looked as good and as sure-handed as ever. He should catch 60-plus passes this season.

– Lane who?

Cable did his best to separate himself from the Kiffin regime. The first mandatory minicamp was the day the music died. No more stereo system playing rock, rap and the occasional country tunes. Cable talked up the signing of Lorenzo Neal a year or so after Kiffin said the veteran didn’t fit the zone blocking scheme. He stayed with the program, holding dear all things Raider.

– Cooper Carlisle will fight to regain his form of two years ago. The Raiders best lineman in 2007, Carlisle wasn’t nearly as good in 2008. He got in a pair of offseason scrapes, one with Ricky Brown and the other with Tyvon Branch.

– Chaz Schilens is the Raiders best wide receiver. Considering durability was an issue as a rookie, it’s at least a minor concern Schilens couldn’t participate in the final OTA, but he showed plenty in earlier sessions. He’s a go-up-and-get it receiver who should be the go-to guy should Russell get enough time to throw on third-and-long.

– Jon Alston is bigger, but apparently not any slower. Alston has been the strong side starter all offseason and weighs more than 230 pounds after finishing last season at 214.

– Cable wants to control the message as much as he does the playing field. Al Davis prefers but does not insist on assistant coaches refraining from talking to the media. His head coaches have done it both ways.

He hired two new coordinators, passing game coordinator Ted Tollner and defensive coordinator John Marshall, both who have long NFL resumes and have managed to avoid saying anything controversial for virtually their entire careers.

Neither man was approved to talk on the record to the media, which I assume will happen at training camp. That’s pretty much how it was handled in the late stages of the Bill Callahan regime as well as the Art Shell redux.

Works great for Bill Belichick, though.

Heck, even Cleveland’s Capt. Queeg, Eric Mangini, allowed Rob Ryan to talk with the media recently.

Coming soon: What we don’t know

– The acquisition of Greg Ellis and the fate of defensive end Derrick Burgess are unrelated, coach Tom Cable said. But it’s worth noting Ellis lined up at Burgess’ left end spot with the first team on his second day as a Raider.

“It came about pretty quick last week, and once it got in motion, I think this was the place he wanted to be, and obviously, what we’re doing defensively, it fits him,” Cable said. “He started out as a 4-3 end and became an outside backer in a 3-4 and now he’s in a 4-3. It makes our team better. I said from the very beginning we’d try to do that, when possible, when it presented itself, so it’s a good deal for us.”

Can Ellis be an an every down player?

“It think he can be. You look a the film and he’s been doing that, albeit in a different position, this is a guy you would rely on to come in and compete to be a starter and all that,” Cable said. “He’s got so much left in terms of where he’s at physically, in terms of his body, his production, so again, just a positive for our team.

– Exactly what Ellis thinks about joining the Raiders isn’t clear. Several media members were hoping to ask quesitons, but instead he was walked off the field by a member of the club’s media relations staff and he never returned.

Whether Ellis didn’t feel like talking or the team didn’t want him to talk isn’t known. No explanation was given. My recollection of Ellis when the Cowboys trained at San Jose State during a week between a Raiders and 49ers game was that he was an extremely personable and agreeable interview subject.

– Ellis practiced with the Raiders for the first time Tuesday, but it wasn’t even mentioned by the club’s Twitter account, which did update fans on tryouts for the Junior Raiderettes.

– The seeds of Burgess’ discontent with the Raiders began when former personnel exec Mike Lombardi was looking in to a contract extension for the Pro Bowl defensive end. When Lombardi was fired, any chance for a deal was lost.

Lombardi assessed the Burgess situation as part of this National Football Post column, although he didn’t write about how it all started.

– Near the end of practice a fight broke out between Tyvon Branch and a lineman, believed to be Cooper Carlisle, and it took a scrum of players to separate them. Cable met with the team after the three horns signifying the end of practice and his first line had the team laughing.

When the Raiders came off the field, Branch was talking with defensive coordiantor John Marshall.

– Other than Ellis at left end, the Raiders finished the public portion of their last OTA much the way they have the past few weeks. No real surprises in among the starters. Khalif Barnes did get some work with the first team at left tackle, although not as much as Mario Henderson.

– Cable said the undrafted free agents which have shown the most this offseason are wide receiver Nick Miller and safety Jerome Boyd, a converted linebacker from Oregon.

– No truly horrible throws from Russell Wednesday, but nothing of note down the field, either, even though there was little in the way of red zone drills. Russell said afterward the plan is to get the receivers together for a gathering at an undisclosed location to work on their timing.

“We’re going to get the receivers and tight ends a week away from everything, just go along by ourselves and accomplish something that would make us a lot better during the year,” Russell said. Just work on our own, with nobody out there but us, get ready for camp, get ready for a new year.”

Cable was glad to hear it.

“I think it’s a big step. It’s kind of what we’ve been talking about all along, and to hear about that is obviously a positive from a coaches’ standpoint,” Cable said. “It will be good to hear how that goes and what his plan is.”

Sounds great, but we’ll probably never know which receivers show up, which ones are healthy enough to show up, and which ones are advised by their agents or the union to not show up.

– With Nnamdi Asomugha and Chris Johnson not attending, John Bowie got in work as a starting cornerback opposite Stanford Routt and got worked over by most every receiver who lined up against him.

– Rookie free agent wide receiver Shawn Bayes made the catch of the day with a dive inside the 5-yard line on a medium-depth throw from Garcia during a team drill. Bayes had the biggest downfield catch as well, a 30-yarder from Garcia against Jason Horton.

(It was enough to make you wonder if Cable meant to say Bayes, No. 87, as a standout, as opposed to Miller, who wears No. 89. Miller also caught a few passes).

– During a two-minute drill in a team session starting at the 20-yard line, Russell looked in the direction of Zach Miller four staright times, not getting a first down, and taking what the coaches ruled a sack on one play.

– In another drive which started at the 20, Russell underthrew a long lob to Johnnie Lee Higgins, with Bowie holding up in coverage, but beat a Thomas Howard blitz with a quick out to Miller for a first down on third-and-3 and converted a third-and-10 with a quick pass to his right to tight end Tony Stewart.

The drive eventually stalled when Russell stepped up on fourth-and-3 threw incomplete with two defenders closer than any Oakland receiver.

– Heyward-Bey and Mitchell weren’t the only rookies who came off the field. Louis Murphy hopped off the field on one play, with Cable saying afterward it was because of a cramp.

Regarding Heyward-Bey’s injury, Cable said, “As you saw, Heyward-Bey is sore. We don’t have any idea what that means because we haven’t had a chance to go look at him yet.”

Hard to know whether the hamstring injury is a fluke or something to be concerned about long-term. Heyward-Bey was regarded as a durable receiver at Maryland.

– Asked whether Mitchell’s absence and hamstring injury sets him back, Cable said, “It does. You can’t do anything about the rules. They are what they are. You have to abide by them so we have some work, some catch-up to do when we get to camp with him, certainly.”

– Perhaps not coincidentally, the Raiders defensive front refrained from jumping offsides with Tommy Kelly absent.

– Raiders players will largely be on their own from now until training camp begins. The reporting date is July 29. Players will be given things to work on and ostensibly a prescribed reporting weight.

Heyward-Bey pulled up on an out-pattern with an audible groan, clutching his right hamstring early in practice. He did not return, leaving the field with trainer Rod Martin.

As for Mitchell, who missed previous OTAs because NFL rules prohited him for participating before his class at Ohio University had graduated, the hamstring he injured back at the mandatory minicamp remains too sore for him to practice.

Among those players who did not attend included cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, defensive tackle Tommy Kelly, cornerback Chris Johnson, safety Michael Huff, defensive end Derrick Burgess and quarterback Andrew Walter.

Others who did not participate due to injury included wide receivers Javon Walker and Arman Shields, defensive end Jay Richardson, fullback Oren O’Neal, tight end John Paul Foschi, wide receiver Chaz Schilens and wide receiver Will Franklin.

Defensive end Greg Ellis, in his second day as a Raider after signing as a free agent, lined up at left end and was playing with the first team.

Quarterback Jeff Garcia, who missed the last OTA sessions following the birth of his son, was back at practice and split time evenly with quarterback JaMarcus Russell. Garcia had better success moving the ball against the Oakland second team defense than Russell did against the first team.

Russell said he and his receivers plan to meet at an undisclosed location this offseason to work on their timing.

More news and notes to come later . . .

Actually, it was certain last night when CEO Amy Trask confirmed to Associated Press that Ellis was indeed signed.

Aside from the fact that A.P. got actual confirmation rather than someone from Bay Area News Group East-Bay, this was good news. Trask, to my knowledge, had never gone on record with a player signing before. And given that her record at responding to messages is somewhere approaching 100 percent, this was a good thing.

Alas, my understanding is this was a one-and-done confirmation . . . too bad.

Hopefully, Ellis will be available for interviews Wednesday. I remember him being an impressive, straight-forward veteran when the Cowboys trained at San Jose State a few years back when playing the 49ers and Raiders back-to-back.

Although it has yet to make its transactions page on the club Web site, the Raiders are confirming the signing of defensive end Greg Ellis, who had 20.5 sacks for the Dallas Cowboys over the past two seasons as a rush linebacker in a 3-4 defense.

Ellis joins a unit which includes Derrick Burgess, Trevor Scott, Jay Richardson, Greyson Gunheim, Derrick Grey, draft picks Matt Shaugnnessy and Stryker Sulak and undrafted free agent Desmond Bryant, who could eventually be a base end or tackle.

Last year’s final 53 roster out of training camp had eight defensive linemen and only four ends _ Burgess, Richardson, Kalimba Edwards and Scott.

Eight linemen was a low figure in part because the Raiders kept seven linebackers out of camp _ starters Thomas Howard, Kirk Morrison and Ricky Brown, and special teamers/backups Isaiah Ekejiuba, Robert Thomas, Jon Alston and Sam Williams.

Wednesday will be the last Raiders practice open to the media until training camp, with players reporting July 29 and the first practice at Napa on July 30.