Shell Wants No Bouquets : He Has Turned Raiders Around, but Says Job Isn’t Finished

No one dropped a floral bouquet on Art Shell’s desk. Champagne corks did not pop, toasts were not raised.

Shell said he didn’t even remember the anniversary until someone quietly congratulated him when he arrived at the Raiders’ headquarters.

“I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ” Shell said.

Then it registered. A year ago Wednesday, Shell made national headlines when he was named the first black head coach in modern National Football League history, replacing Mike Shanahan. The significance of the hiring was raised by sociologists and sportswriters alike. It isn’t anymore.

For Shell, Wednesday was just another day in the life of a good football coach. He couldn’t have planned it better. No “Nightline” panel discussions on TV, no subplots. Just a good coach and his undefeated team.

“I haven’t thought about it,” Shell said of the social significance of his first year. “Now that you bring it up, I hope it does help other minority coaches. But it will only be (helpful) if I’m successful.”

Shell does not consider what he has done so far a success, despite numbers that say otherwise. In the 16 games before Shell took over, the Raiders were 6-10. In the 16 games since, they are 11-5, 9-0 at home, and one of four undefeated teams in the NFL.

“That’s not success to me,” Shell said. “Success only means winning the Super Bowl.”

Shell, it cannot be ignored, has transformed basically the same body of talent from losers into winners almost overnight, in a football sense. Players speak of him with reverence. To them, Shell is a walking sandwich board for NFL Films. His presence is imposing, they say, his credentials unquestionble. When Shell tells of football wars, he knows whereof he speaks. He is, after all, a Hall of Fame offensive tackle.

“Good coaches who have tremendous coaching ability can also be successful,” nose tackle Bob Golic said. “But there’s a definite benefit when you’ve been a player before. . . . In training camp, he called practice off a half-hour early because it seemed like the guys were a little beat up and tired. He said, ‘Go back to your room, and put your feet up and relax.’ How often do you hear that?”

Shell, who shed more than 40 pounds in an off-season weight-loss program, also commands the physical respect of his players.

“If we had all our offensive linemen go down and he had to get in uniform, you could never tell that this man has been out of football for a long time,” defensive end Greg Townsend said.

When two Raiders got in a training camp scuffle, Shell, 43, explained that if they didn’t break it up, they’d soon be squaring off against him. End of fight.

Shell’s approach to football is blunt. “Direct, to the point,” Townsend said.

When it comes to X’s and O’s, Shell may not be confused with the Bill Walshes of the world, but that’s not “Raider football” anyway. The problem with Shanahan, most have concluded, was that he wasn’t a Raider. His offense, based on finesse, was complicated, something Al Davis’ teams have never been.

Shell has described Raider football as power, explosion and simplicity. Unlike Shanahan, Shell has only two rules: Be on time and concentrate.

“(Shanahan had) unnecessary rules,” Townsend said. “Ones that don’t have anything to do with football, like the coaches telling you you can’t sit on your helmets, or they give you water breaks and you can’t get water on your own time. Do you want discipline or do you want football players? You want football players, no matter how rowdy or radical they are. You want football players that are willing to win for you.”

The Raiders are willing under Shell. He gives his players plenty of rope, so long as they don’t cross him. Make no mistake: There is power and passion in his presence .

“We make sure he’s happy because he’s a big guy,” wide receiver Willie Gault said. “He’s an intense person when he has to be. He lets us know when we’re wrong and he lets us know when we’re right. He doesn’t shoot you curveballs. When he says something, he means it. He can back up whatever he says. If he said he could run faster than me, I’d say, ‘OK, fine. I believe you.’ ”

Having spent five years in Chicago with Bear Coach Mike Ditka, Gault knows what it’s like to take orders from a former NFL star.

Shell, Gault said, is different. He’s not a screamer. He doesn’t break clipboards or tear up locker rooms.

“They’re different styles,” he said. “They’re both winners, but I think Art attacks it much differently. It’s not so much a verbal attack as it is his presence.”

Townsend said Shell doesn’t need to open his mouth to get his point across.

“It’s a look he gives you,” Townsend said. “That’s all he does. You really don’t want him to say anything to you. . . . It’s a look like, ‘Hey, one more time and . . . ‘ “‘

And maybe Shell puts on a helmet and lines up across from you.

How much of a difference has Shell made?

“I’d say it’s 100%,” Townsend said. “Everyone’s loose around here, no one’s up-tight about anything. It just makes the atmosphere much different.”

The Raiders, it can be said, had talent before Shell arrived, and didn’t win. They had Gault, Townsend, Howie Long, Marcus Allen, Jay Schroeder.

Didn’t they play hard for Shanahan?

Townsend: “The only thing I can say is when you get a person like Art Shell, who played 15 years, was an assistant for 7 1/2, who comes from a winning background, you just feel, well, you know, what this guy is talking about. You believe what he’s saying because he’s done it. You don’t do 15 years in the NFL and coach afterward and not know what you’re talking about.”

Golic said it takes more than talent to win. “It’s how the talent is utilized,” he said, “How the team feels about itself is probably the most important thing. If you don’t feel good about yourself or aren’t using the talent well, then it doesn’t matter. I played on a team with the Patriots at the beginning of my career, with four first-round draft choices in the defensive secondary. And we couldn’t stop anybody.”

Golic said he has only seen one major change in Shell: “Now that he’s lost that weight, he’s not as imposing. I’m not as intimidated. If he keeps going with this weight thing, we’ll even carry him off the field on our shoulders after one of these games.”