Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Monte and Gruden mentioned in Raiders Sideshow



By JC De La Torre

During the termination press conference of former Oakland Raiders Head Coach Lane Kiffin, two prominent Buccaneers coaches, Monte Kiffin (Lane's father) and former Raider Head Coach and Current Bucs Head Coach Jon Gruden's names came up.

Al Davis was in pure Darth Raider form when describing the odyssey of the Kiffin era, or error, as it were, as he called the young coach a 'professional liar'.

Davis reference Lane's father, Monte Kiffin several times during the press conference (source: Bay Area Sports Beat) -

"His father once applied for a job with us when we were in Los Angeles, that was Monte Kiffin"

“‘I know that you wanted to bring your father in to run the defense, and Monte -- that's Monte Kiffin told me that he wanted to come here, even though he is under contract to Tampa. I did not want to tamper with another team.

“We had our attorneys call Bruce Allen and tell him that Monte Kiffin, because otherwise it's a tampering charge, talked to me and all he talked to me was about Lane, how to handle Lane and things like that. What he really wanted to do was come here and coach.”

Toward the end of the press conference, a question was posed to the new interim head coach of the Oakland Raiders, Tom Cable, what was the difference between himself and the other five coaches that failed since Jon Gruden.

After Cable answered, Al Davis bristled, saying "What's that you said about Jon Gruden?".

The writer sounded a bit flustered, saying, "That all the coaches failed after Gruden...except for...you know...the Super Bowl year."

Davis smirked, "Yeah, that's right. I'd take that year every three years."

Davis then rambled on incoherantly about how they were on a short week and treated the Super Bowl like the Rose Bowl believing that he proved his point that the Raider were successful after Gruden. (Ignoring the fact that Bill Callahan had essentially the same team and ran the same offense as Gruden, so much so, Gruden used his knowledge to beat them like a drum in the Super Bowl).

You have to feel for Monte and Lane - I'm sure Lane will land on his feet. As for you Raider fans out there....wow, I hate to see what has happened to your once proud franchise. Commitment to Excellence has turned into Commitment to Excrement. Good Luck!

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