RAIDERS RETURN TO OAKLAND : THE NFL / BILL PLASCHKE

Davis Not Only One to Blame, but He’s a Good Place to Start

How could this happen?

The question clouds Los Angeles today, as thick as the stench of an Al Davis lie.

At the end of one football season, we had two NFL teams.

By the start of the next, we’ll have none.

This is not evolution. This is robbery.

How could this happen?

Somebody has stolen a piece of our identity, one of the few common denominators in a city of too many fractions.

There are thieves in the house.

Al Davis is one.

His flunkies refer to him in the Raider media guide as an “astute, fearless leader.”

Maybe once. But today he is a scared man who ultimately decided he couldn’t handle the pressure of forging a new era.

If he stays in Los Angeles to play in the new stadium, he becomes the only game in town. Media coverage is doubled. Thousands more take notice.

Al Davis is a guy who does his best work in the dark.

In Oakland, the 49ers will provide him with that shadow.

In Oakland, nobody will ask him again about Marcus Allen.

In Oakland, nobody will tell him that it is impossible to sell seats in a new stadium when your front office is controlled by smirking lawyer Amy Trask, one of the most disliked people in the NFL.

In Oakland, he won’t have to shake anybody’s hand. His players won’t have to sign anybody’s autograph or answer anybody’s stupid questions.

He can pound the press box phone and curse new Coach Mike White and everybody will say, “Well, that’s just Al.”

With the deal drawn up by the NFL and Hollywood Park, Al Davis could have owned Los Angeles. Not in two or three years when the new stadium was done, but now .

But he was afraid, so instead he stole a piece of the town and ran north.

There are thieves in the house.

The NFL is another.

When I wrote that the Hollywood Park stadium deal was a “mortal lock,” I showed my complete ignorance for Davis’ eccentricities.

The league should have known better.

When the Rams began making noises about moving, somebody should have realized that leaving this town in the hands of Al Davis is like leaving your child at a day-care center run by wolves.

As Georgia Frontiere marched out of town, somebody from the league office should have thrown themselves in front of her instead of simply allowing her to pay a toll.

The Save The Rams group from Orange County warned us about this. We thought they were being parochial. We were wrong.

If that group is eventually awarded an expansion franchise or stadium deal, they deserve it.

When the NFL owners looked at St. Louis they saw only money. They did not see long-term ramifications.

They saw only that growing monster known as the Personal Seat License. They did not see fans.

Maybe none of this happens if, two seasons ago, the league shows its concern for fans by expanding to former NFL cities Baltimore and St. Louis instead of the trendy cash machines of Charlotte and Jacksonville, places where professional football has less tradition than miniature golf.

Maybe then, every other owner doesn’t begin demanding improvements in stadiums that are missing only luxury boxes that 95% of fans never use.

The way some of these owners talk today, you would think they were playing in Beirut instead of a perfectly serviceable stadium that is a lousy place only because they can’t milk it for more money.

Since the labor peace of two years ago, the NFL got so big, so fast, that it has forgotten to check its foundations.

Today, a cornerstone has been stolen.

There are thieves in the house.

The city of Los Angeles is another.

In any right-thinking society, there exists no scenario in which public money should be spent on millionaires and their football stadiums.

But nothing is wrong with a smile and a nudge to the ribs that says, “Al, if you leave town, we’ll scream bloody murder. Al, who can we call? What arms can we twist?”

Something is wrong when a month’s worth of stories about the Raiders leaving town contain more mentions of Carmen Policy than Richard Riordan.

We don’t want your money. But we want to know that you care about this potential loss as much as thousands of your constituents.

The Coliseum Commission is also guilty of failing to serve their public. Don’t coddle Davis, but at least give him what you promised.

There are many, many thieves in the house today, with Los Angeles fans able to trust in only one thing.

They are not you.