The Emperor Returns From Hiding

The Emperor of Oakland returned from hiding to announce Hue Jackson as the next Oakland Raiders coach, but mostly Al returned from hiding to throw every coach who has ever set foot in the Raiders organization under the bus.

Tim Kawakami and the staff of the San Jose Mercury News transcribed the entire press conference yesterday and the informal Q&A that took place afterwords. If you have the time, you should really read those two posts. They go in depth into the feel of the press conference. If you don't have time, here's a couple of highlights from yesterday.

When comparing Jason Campbell's draft prospects to Cam Newton's, because they both played at Auburn, Al called Newton "Kim" twice.

I remind you that these things don’t come quickly to anyone. We all espouse the greatness of Brett Favre. One Super Bowl that he won with the Green Bay Packers. So what I was saying to you was that my gestalt saw in Jason Campbell someone down the road who can really throw the football, can run, there are some things we have to do with him, but I think the guy that’s going to be handling him in the future knows what to do and how to do it.

One point I want to make, that might of interest to you, Kim Newton is the quarterback for Auburn. And they were the national champions this year.

When Jason Campbell played for Auburn, he was 13-0 his senior year. I want you to all check it out with… a lot of you have scouts and this… who the better player was coming out of college, Jason Campbell or Kim Newton.

That's just a part of the wackiness. The main point was for Al to throw Tom Cable under the bus like he did to Lane Kiffin a couple of years ago. Davis drives home the report about Cable allegedly breaking Randy Hanson's jaw and alleged spousal abuse. The best part though was Al talking about Cable taking his girlfriend on road trips with him.

Now, one of the things revealed by Ms. Lutz was too much for  me. And that was whether, I don’t know if it’s true, we’re going to find out but Tom was asked about it and refused to answer it. He brought her on trips on the road when the team’s playing on the road, he’s the head coach and this is the guy who’s talking about focus, we’ve got a job to do, we’ve got a game to play, we’ve got to win, and there flying in friends so they can be with him the night before the game. All of this stuff goes a long way against my wishes, against my way of living, against my life and against the Raider way and I just wasn’t going to take it anymore.

Davis couldn't leave without taking a shot at Lane Kiffin. 

Well, I beat him because he lied. He’s a liar. He lied to you guys. He got letters… (Expletive) him if he was a liar. He lied in Tennessee .

Kiffin and Cable weren't the only coaches he threw under the bus. He ran over Jon Gruden and Norv Turner just for laughs. I'm surprised he didn't throw Bill Callahan or Mike Shanahan under the bus while he was at it.

Al Davis is certainly one of a kind and yesterday proved it.