Davis Should Get His Due: Hall of Fame

Al Davis did not announce where--if anywhere--his football team would be moving before last Saturday’s vote for the NFL’s Hall of Fame. Maybe he deliberately waited. Or maybe he couldn’t have cared less.

I do not know how much making the Hall of Fame means to Davis, or why he hasn’t already made it, or how much his herding of the Raiders from Northern to Southern California has do to with it.

Furthermore, I haven’t lost one minute of sleep feeling sorry for him.

For the record, though, let me make a couple of things perfectly clear:

--One, no matter what you think of the man, Al Davis definitely belongs in the Hall of Fame. His not being inducted is a travesty. He has played an important part in the rise of pro football to the status of National Pastime 1-A.

--Two, no matter when or where Davis moves the Raiders, it is his business. Why? Because it is his business. He runs it. You wouldn’t want somebody telling you where you had to run your business. It’s Al’s team; not yours, not mine, not Oakland’s, not L.A.’s. His.

So, when we get the news--no matter what it is--I side with Davis. If he wants to take his team back to the Bay Area, fine. Oakland never deserved being deserted. If Davis wants to take it to Sacramento, double fine. The state capital should have a team. It’s a big-league sports town.

Where would I prefer the Raiders to play?

Right where they are.

After watching Oakland’s fans whoop and holler for the Raiders in an exhibition game there, I made a remark to the extent of: “If they want the Raiders that badly, let them have them.” Some of the Raider management people took that personally. They take a lot of things personally. They see enemies under their beds.

Truth is, the thought of Los Angeles proper not having its own NFL team is not a pleasant one. If the Coliseum can be streamlined and converted into an intimate setting, then I say: On with the show. I’ll start singing, “Stay” in Frankie Valli’s falsetto, if that’s what it takes. Won’t you stay, Al? Pleeeeeeeez stay.

If he does go, though, more power to him. Los Angeles would get in line with St. Louis, Baltimore and other cities seduced and abandoned. Yet, I don’t know a soul in L.A. who feels sorry for Minneapolis for losing the Lakers, or for Brooklyn over the Dodger kidnapping, or Cleveland over the hijacking of the Rams.

So, if the Raiders go, shut up already.

Just don’t sit around the way they do in St. Louis and Baltimore and play make-believe that the next NFL expansion team is definitely coming your way. Don’t kid yourselves. It took Minnesota something like a quarter-century to get pro basketball back. Some franchises never get recycled.

If the Raiders announce that they are leaving, and spend another season here as lame ducks, then I suggest not squandering good money on tickets. Otherwise, be a good loser and wish the next town luck.

I talked to a voter after the Hall of Fame ballots were cast, a guy who said he voted for Davis and always does. He told me the anti-Al coalition harps on his “negative contributions” to the game, insisting that these more than balance out his virtues. Hauling the NFL into court, costing it in the neighborhood of $150 million, pioneering a stampede of carpetbaggers--such behavior continues to be used in argument against Davis’ election.

Well, you don’t have to like Al Davis to think him worthy of the Hall of Fame. You can’t fault a football man just because he played some hardball. Davis belongs.

As owners go, George Halas, Paul Brown, Art Rooney and others were more worthy. I knew George Halas personally, and let me tell you, this guy is no George Halas.

Yet, he is no Gaylord Perry either. Al Davis played to win but he didn’t cheat to win.

He may not have been in a league with Halas, but he has been a pretty big contributor to Halas’ league.

Davis acts as presenter for many of his former Raider players on Hall of Fame induction day. Seven, so far. He may be there again soon, when Ted Hendricks takes the podium.

Someday, somebody will present him. A man with 30 years in pro ball. Former commissioner of the American Football League. Youngest man, at 33, to hold the dual positions of coach and general manager. Boss of three Super Bowl champions. Employer of the NFL’s first black coach in the modern era.

I don’t mind if Al Davis goes to Oakland or Sacramento. I do mind that he hasn’t yet gone--except on someone else’s behalf--to Canton, Ohio.