SUPER BOWL XXVII : Raiders’ Davis Looks Back : Interview: He says that his memory of Marcus Allen will always be tinged by season-ending controversy.

This was to be Al Davis’ season of triumph. At 63, the Raider owner is a significant member of the NFL Establishment he spent so much of his earlier life battling.

From Oakland to Los Angeles, from the NFL-AFL merger to the Raider move south, from the Coliseum Commission to the players’ association, Davis has always been involved in more struggles off the field than on it. Between lawsuits and contract negotiations, it sometimes seemed there wasn’t enough time for his real passion, football.

Last summer, that appeared to finally be behind him. He had received the ultimate vindication for his life’s work, entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he had either beaten or outlasted most of his foes. Controversy seemed a thing of the past.

But for Davis, controversy is never very far away.

And so, this past season was every bit as tumultuous as any before it.

It began with a quarterback controversy and ended with a public airing of the long-running feud between Davis and running back Marcus Allen. In between, Davis was attacked for everything from his team’s offense to his personnel decisions. And even the old rumors about the Raiders heading elsewhere resurfaced.

Tuesday, Davis sat in his El Segundo office to reflect on a season and a life in the eye of the storm.

Question: Let’s cut right to the chase and begin with the question everybody wants answered. How do you feel about Allen, who blasted you on national television for, in his view, trying to ruin his career?

Answer: It’s not an issue anymore. In time, the true story will come out. It’s over. I said what I said. (Coach) Art (Shell) said what he said. Marcus said what he said.

My thing is having the Raiders win. I’m not interested in creating brush fires over here. I’m not interested in winning those battles. That’s not what drives me.

What he (Allen) said were blatant lies. It was done in a cheap and sneaky way. He brought Art Shell into it and forced Art to call him a liar and a cancer to our team.

I want to be positive about him (Allen) and always remember him as a quality athlete who made a contribution to the Raiders’ excellence. But he had his own agenda, in my mind, and there will always be an asterisk next to his name.

Q: Was football your first love when you were growing up in New York?

A: When I was a kid, I liked all three of what I call the major sports--football, basketball and baseball. But football was not as big in New York, where I came from Massachusetts when I was 6 years old.

I derived my interest in football from baseball. It wasn’t the great players that inspired me, although I admired them. It was the great organization of the Yankees. They represented certain things to me--fear, intimidation, power. Big people. The home run. It looked like they always got great players from other teams who could finish with the Yankees and be great.

Then along came Branch Rickey in the early 1940s with the Dodgers. And they developed a way of playing baseball with an emphasis on speed, teaching fundamentals and a willingness to take chances. I thought Rickey was a pioneer.

I used to think that I could take these two organizations, combine their qualities and put them into one.

Q: Most kids dream of being an athlete. It sounds like you, even as a young kid, were already dreaming about being part of management.

A: I wanted to be an athlete, but I also wanted to organize the thing. I wanted to lead the thing. Very early. A couple of these networks did stories on me because of the Hall of Fame. They went to kids I grew up with. I’m not trying to impress you here, but they (his former playmates) all said I could lead.

Q: How old were you?

A: Seven, eight, nine. Right in there when I was in public school.

Q: Did you focus in on football as a student at Wittenberg College in Ohio and then later at Syracuse University?

A: I played a wing in the single wing, or an end. I never dreamed my dreams at Syracuse. I made the team, but I never played, never did anything. But though I wasn’t a great player, it was clear to me I understood the game.

We didn’t have television for pro football in those days. So I used to go down and look at newsreels to see what they were doing.

Q: You began your coaching career at New York’s Adelphi College, became an assistant with the Baltimore Colts at age 24, and, after several other jobs, including three seasons as an assistant at USC, became both coach and general manager of the Raiders at 33. Thirty years, 24 winning seasons and three Super Bowl championships later, you made it into the Hall of Fame. Was that your crowning achievement?

A: Getting into the Hall of the Fame was a reflection of a life’s work. But it was more of a testament to a great organization, all the loyal people, players, coaches, staff people who gave their vitality to the greatness of the Raiders.

But it’s over with and I’m grateful that I’m in. It was something I thought should have happened long before it happened, but, while it’s a great thing, it’s not the crowning achievement with me.

Q: What is?

A: I would say the coach-of-the-year award in 1963 was important to me. Presenting eight players for the Hall of Fame was important.

And then the retired players in 1991 gave me their first award of excellence. We had the ceremony in West Virginia. There must have been a thousand retired players there with their wives. It was one of the most emotional experiences I’ve ever had.

Q: Yet with all the accolades, you and many of your people were under fire more than ever in 1992. Let’s run down the list starting with Shell. Is he in any trouble?

A: Let me put it this way, even though it’s self-serving. We dominated in the ‘60s. We dominated in the ‘70s. We dominated in the ‘80s. And we started the ‘90s dominating (with a 12-4 record). And that was Art Shell’s first year.

I said he would grow as a head coach. He had been one of the greatest players of his time. He had been a fine assistant coach. And he needs time to grow as a head coach. This is a unique experience. I want to give him the same opportunities as a John Madden and a Tom Flores. I want Art to do great. I feel this organization owes it to him.

Q: What about the charges that you are really coaching the team?

A: It’s totally wrong. There’s no way I could coach. I’m only at practice two days a week. It’s just ludicrous.

Sure, I make suggestions from time to time on the game plan. But they don’t always listen to me. I’ve never been to a quarterback meeting.

I might be standing at practice and tell them to send in fresh defensive backs, but that’s not coaching. That’s crazy to say it is.

This business of my calling plays is ridiculous. If they want to give me credit, I’ll take credit for those three Super Bowls we won. I’ll say I coached just those weeks.

If I were coaching, I’d tell you so. I wouldn’t be afraid to say it.

Q: What about the charges that your offense is antiquated?

A: I’ve gone through it with John Madden when they wanted to fire him in the early ‘70s. I’ve gone through it with Flores. Before the 1980 season, they said we were crazy. (Quarterback Jim) Plunkett could never do it. Before the 1983 season here in Los Angeles, they said Plunkett was a stiff and (receiver) Cliff Branch was through.

If you want to be honest, look at the Dallas offense. While they execute fantastically well and they are machine-like, they are about the simplest offense going in professional football today. And they are a derivative of us. They use a two-back offense and no shotgun.

But if the word is iconoclasm or whatever it is, I accept it (the criticism). John Madden said: “One of the great things about working for Al Davis is that he always gets the blame.”

So if I can be the buffer, that’s fine. We just finished 30 years here and we have the best record in professional sports. If they want to blame me for the last 30 years, I’ll take it.

Q: Another hot spot in ’92 was quarterback where there was a season-long controversy involving Jay Schroeder, Todd Marinovich and, eventually, Vince Evans. How did you view all the shuffling at that position?

A: We thought we could win. We could have won, but we didn’t. So you suffer the consequences. In ‘83, we won the Super Bowl, and yet Plunkett and (Marc) Wilson switched a couple of times during the year. (Kenny) Stabler started three different years before he got the job.

It’s pretty obvious we’re uncertain now at quarterback. We thought we had it in ‘90, but we had Bo (Jackson) with us and he took a lot of pressure off the quarterback.

Q: There was plenty of pressure on Schroeder. What will happen to him now?

A: I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him. I don’t know what he wants to do. The guy takes so much damn abuse locally, sometime you wonder if it isn’t best he migrate elsewhere.

Q: Now that he has been demoted to third on the depth chart, does Marinovich have a future with the Raiders?

A: He really isn’t third. Does he have a future? We’ll see if he has a future. If he’s stable, there’s no question he has a future here.

Q: Is it possible there will be someone totally new at quarterback in ’93 for the Raiders?

A: We’ll make a determination on that. No matter who we have, we want to get better.

Q: Can we expect to see lots of new faces next season?

A: No, we have to wait to see how it all evolves. I don’t believe in a lot of change. I’ve never been a big change guy. What I’ve been is an addition guy. Our organization has been about addition, not subtraction.

Q: Did you make a mistake in trying to split the ballcarrying duties this season between three guys--Allen, Eric Dickerson and Nick Bell?

A: No, it just didn’t work out.

It’s like someone in the middle of the year asked me, “Is the club too old?” I said: “If we don’t win, it’s too old. If we win, we did the right thing.”

We went with the three running backs because, in the past four years, we’d go into camp with three running backs and not one time did we have all three together. We always had someone hurt.

This year, no one got hurt and some didn’t like their roles.

We’ve always gone into training camp with the idea it’s better to have more than less. And then, we’ll make our decisions later.

Q: Another controversy revolved around defensive lineman Anthony Smith, who led the team with 13 sacks, yet couldn’t win a starting job. How did you feel about his role?

A: We thought it was great because it’s inspirational for him. You’ve got to look at who we were playing. . . .

Listen, when we drafted Anthony Smith, we caught hell from everyone. Hell. I drafted an alleged felon, a guy who was involved with drugs, all that stuff. But we knew he was a brilliant prospect. He’ll grow. He’s going to play and he’s going to play a lot. And he’ll be great.

Q: How about the demotion of Terry Robiskie from his job as offensive coordinator?

A: We don’t have coordinators. What happened was, we had lost a lot of games (four) in a row.

Robiskie is a hell of a kid, but we just wanted to change the pace, almost like you’d change the coach at third base. And we wanted to change the play-calling a little.

Q: Another guy who seemed to drop from favor was receiver Mervyn Fernandez. What happened to him?

A: It might be we were overloaded at certain positions with talent, and we couldn’t satisfy them all.

I’ve always believed in the sixth-man approach. I don’t believe your best players have to start. I liked Tim Brown (coming off the bench), but the decision was made to insert him in the lineup. So that took Mervyn out. And Mervyn is not a guy they like to bring in off the bench.

So they went to someone else. It was (Sam) Graddy until he got hurt. And then, Alexander Wright.

Q: Golic was another player who found himself on the sidelines in the latter part of the season. Does he still have some football left in him?

A: Yeah, I think he does. Sure he does. There’s no question, but not necessarily here.

Q: There were other problems beside personnel this season. When the Coliseum renovation ran into trouble, there was talk you were looking into other options. Did you ever come close to moving?

A: No, but it’s disturbing. This organization has operated for 10 to 12 years in a negative stadium facility. We don’t have all the things these other stadiums have and it’s been a disadvantage to our football team. So a lot of thoughts run through our mind.

But I’m just hoping all the things they committed to will be adhered to and will be done. We’ve been assured they will be starting in the middle of February lowering the field, making the stadium smaller and more intimate with closer sidelines so we can have the roar of the crowd. They will cut it down to approximately 68,000 seats. . . . We’ve always been positive it’s going to happen. I just hope it happens in my lifetime.

We get calls from developers. They want to build at Hollywood Park, Long Beach. There’s inquiries from every place in America. I’ve never pursued anything because we want to see if this plan becomes a reality. We want to make it a reality.

Q: Is it reality to expect the Raiders to bounce back quickly?

A: Everyone expects us to win every year. And to win big. And when we don’t, boy oh boy. . . .

Q: Any thoughts of retirement?

A: No, I still want to fight back. I’m not satisfied because we didn’t win this year. Overall, I’m at peace. It’s been a good life. But I want to win. The flame that burns brightest in me will always be the will to win.

Q: Any regrets?

A: I’ve done over 10 eulogies in the past five years of people who were close to me. I feel I can dominate anything. And I try to without hurting others. But I can’t lick sickness and disease and it bothers me.