Al Davis was lauded and slammed after dying this week. One of my favorite things about Al was the fact that he bluffed his way into the coaching profession.
At Syracuse University, [Al Davis] studied English and ran with varsity jocks but was cut from the football team. He played with the junior varsity, a fact he tried to edit later. His yearbook bios in his jobs as an assistant coach at The Citadel and USC said he was a three-sport letterman; he lettered in none.
Since he was cut off [from the Syracuse football team] as a player, he set out to coach. He began soaking up strategy by taking copious notes at Syracuse practices until Syracuse Coach Ben Schwartzwalder noticed him there and did what any football man--and especially the latter-day Davis--would: He had the offender removed.
At Syracuse, Davis roomed with Bernie Custis, who as the Orangeman’s quarterback was Syracuse’s MVP in 1948 but who didn’t play in the NFL because he wasn’t going to be given a shot at quarterback, because Custis is black.
Custis was a quarterback at Syracuse University and was drafted by the Cleveland Browns. The Browns, however, wanted to convert him to running back. Custis decided to go to Canada instead, where he was an all-star as a rookie QB in 1951.
Davis offered Custis a series of jobs for years, but Custis turned him down because he didn’t like to fly.
Some great quotes from the New York Times:
Don Shula, the Hall of Fame coach, once said of Mr. Davis, reporting on a conversation they’d had, “Al thought it was a compliment to be considered devious.”
“I don’t want to be the most respected team in the league,” Mr. Davis said in 1981. “I want to be the most feared.”
From the Washington Post:
When he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1992, Mr. Davis said with typical bravado, “I said many times that it should have happened a long time ago.”
