Raiders owner Davis: I picked the wrong guy
By SKIP WOOD
and JIM CORBETT
USA TODAY
In a stinging public rebuke, mercurial Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis said during a rare press briefing Tuesday that he fired head coach Lane Kiffin earlier in the day because of a variety of things that ranged from lying to insubordination.
The interim coach will be Tom Cable, Kiffin's offensive line coach and the league-leading ninth coach of the Raiders since 1989, thus ending months of simmering tension between the owner and the coach.
Davis said Kiffin's firing has to do with "conduct detrimental to the Raiders," and it's the team's opinion that the remainder of the contract that was to run through next season is, in effect, null, and Kiffin will not be paid. That almost surely will prompt a grievance to the league by Kiffin.
"I reached a point where I thought the whole staff, we were fractionalized." Davis said. "It hurts, because I picked the guy — I picked the wrong guy."
Kiffin, 33, who said he would hold his own news conference Wednesday, told ESPN on Tuesday that "It was very painful and emotional today. But I know I did the best I could, and I was very honest with the media. I wasn't going to sit there and allow it to be a certain way and just accept it. I was going to fight for our players and staff for what we believed in that could help us win."
The 79-year-old Davis said that Kiffin brought "disgrace to the organization," that he unfairly undermined defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and blatantly lied to reporters when saying he rarely talks with the owner.
The Raiders, 1-3 this season, were 5-15 under Kiffin.
Kiffin garnered respect among Raiders cornerback DeAngelo Hall and teammates for his handling of Davis' pressure to resign since an offseason clash over Kiffin's desire to dismiss Ryan. "You definitely feel bad for Lane," Hall said. "Lane's a good coach. He was put in a bad situation."
Does Hall believe Kiffin has what it takes to resurface as a head coach down the road?
"Oh yeah," Hall says. "I'm sure he'll bounce back. He's built to coach in the NFL. He's built to relate well to the players."