Prominent in all the summations about the life of Al Davis was his perceived ill will toward the press. Not so.
Sure, Davis was not Mary Poppins to the assembled scribblers and radio/TV club; feisty, stubborn, yes, belligerent, unruly, not so fast.
Al became more reserved and less inclined to talk and give interviews in the later stages of his life, hence the infrequent press gatherings, save for coaching changes and state of the franchise appearances. He didn't hate the media, he hated the dumb questions. Ask an intelligent query and he'd gladly answer it, well, at least most of the time.
I covered the Raiders in the early 80's for K101 Radio before their move to LA and from 1995 through last year. I was witness to a few of Davis's priceless media sessions.
He was all everything you have read. Difficult perhaps, but not the evil rogue some have indicated. He had his media enemies, sure, but nothing or nobody out of the ordinary. He wasn't everyone's flavor, but who is?
Pro Football and the NFL, indeed all of sports has lost a true icon.
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