Coach Jackson, Raiders Players Saddened by Davis’ Death at BetLM

Coach Jackson, Raiders Players Saddened by Davis’ Death

HOUSTON — The Oak­land Raiders left their down­town hotel for a two-hour walk­through Sat­ur­day after a team meet­ing in which the coach­ing staff told play­ers about the pass­ing of iconic owner Al Davis. Play­ers and coaches were busi­nesslike as they boarded team buses, although there were sev­eral hugs and hand­shakes, par­tic­u­larly among some of the long­time employees.

The Raiders play the Hous­ton Tex­ans on Sun­day after­noon in what some play­ers said will be an emo­tional game because of Davis’ pass­ing. The Raiders have planned a trib­ute to Davis before the game, but they won’t dis­close those plans, accord­ing to a team spokesman.

“It’s with my deep­est and most sin­cere regret that Coach Davis has passed,” Raiders coach Hue Jack­son said. “My thoughts and prayers go first to his wife and fam­ily, then to the Raider fam­ily and orga­ni­za­tion. Because of this accom­plished man and his for­ever love of the black and sil­ver, the fire that burned in him, I will honor. It will for­ever burn in me.

“Obvi­ously, it’s a tremen­dous loss. I just know Coach. He would want us to go out and play like Raiders. What a tremen­dous per­son, tremen­dous man. I owe him so much. This league owes him so much. He’s a leg­end and an icon, and we’re going to honor him by play­ing the way the Raiders should play.”

Jack­son con­tin­ued: “It’s hard. … We want him to live for­ever. Our play­ers never thought any­thing would hap­pen to him because he’s Coach. They’re sad, and I think they’re dis­ap­pointed, but we’re chan­nel­ing it the right way. We’re here to play a foot­ball game. We under­stand what his mes­sage would be to us, and that’s, ‘Just win, baby,’ and that’s what we look for­ward to doing.”

Defen­sive tackle Richard Sey­mour, whom the Raiders acquired in a 2009 trade with the New Eng­land Patri­ots, mourned the loss of Davis.

“In my short time of know­ing him — his pas­sion, his will to win, will for­ever be with me,” Sey­mour said. “When I first came here, I could just tell over the phone his pas­sion, his com­mit­ment. Every­one that’s been con­nected to him, that’s his last­ing impact. He’s an icon. In my mind, he’s a leg­end, not only in my heart and the Raiders’ hearts but with the foun­da­tion of the NFL.

“He tran­scends black, white — it didn’t mat­ter. To him, it was about win­ning. It was about peo­ple. Even when you go to pol­i­tics, it didn’t mat­ter. Repub­li­can, Demo­c­rat, he was about the end result. I think we can learn a lot from him.”

Sey­mour said Davis would want the team to focus on Sunday’s game.

“In my mind, it isn’t ‘Let’s win one for the Gip­per.’ I feel, with him, he would want us to go out and do what we do,” Sey­mour said. “The end result would be win­ning. There def­i­nitely will be a moment of silence and a lot of pas­sion for sure. We’ll try to go out and emu­late what he would want us to be.”

Hall of Fame defen­sive back Willie Brown, now the Raiders’ direc­tor of squad devel­op­ment, has been with the fran­chise for 41 years as a player and coach. He shared the fol­low­ing anec­dote with the media after break­ing down and cry­ing dur­ing a pre­vi­ous interview.

Brown said that when he played for the Den­ver Bron­cos in 1964, Davis came up to him on the field after a game against the Raiders and told him, as they shook hands, “One day we’re going to get you here.” Brown said that when he pulled his hand away, he had $ 50 in his palm. The Raiders even­tu­ally traded for Brown, who played for them from 1967 to 1978.

“That’s a true story,” Brown said. “True story.”

Related Posts:

• Jack­son Con­fi­dent Palmer Trade Will Keep Raiders on Track
• Cow­boys Play­ers and Coaches Come Together for Charity
• Raiders RB McFad­den Has No Struc­tural Dam­age in Foot
• Raiders Likely to Opt for Famil­iar Boller Over Palmer vs. Chiefs
• Cal Coach Mont­gomery to Have Surgery

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•