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Page 2 of 2 But the Raiders have fallen out of fame and fortune. Since moving back to Oakland in 1995, after a 13-year run in Los Angeles, the Raiders have sold-out only two-thirds of their games - the Black Hole isn't even terrifying anymore, it's known to be a bunch of decent lawyers and accountants pretending to make tough. The Raiders did reach back to make the Super Bowl in 2003, losing badly to Tampa Bay, but blunders light up the marquee since. Davis hired his offensive coordinator, Tom Walsh, from a bed and breakfast in Sun Valley, Idaho, then demoted him mid-season. His Hall of Fame coach often looked unmoved on the sideline, and Davis canned him after the season. The franchise that gave us Stabler, Fred Biletnikoff, George Blanda, Willie Brown, Marcus Allen, Gene Upshaw and Ray Guy, sits near at the bottom of the league in most categories, although the defense showed some life this year. And then came the lawsuits. Davis moved the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles in 1982, winning a court battle that said the NFL couldn't stop him - then he moved back to the Bay Area when he realized the old LA Coliseum had no luxury boxes. A flurry of lawsuits followed - breach of contract on a new stadium proposal in Los Angeles, a lawsuit to stop expansion teams from using black in their uniforms, another suit to avoid revenue-sharing (at one league meeting, a rumor circulated that some owners didn't show up because they didn't want to be subpoenaed). The economics and the style of the NFL have changed in the past 10 years. The outlaw brand that Davis created is now polished and corporate, a league run by people with graduate degrees. When Davis signed on as General Manager in 1972, he received 10 percent of the team for only $18,000. The average today is near $900 million, but Forbes Magazine puts the Raiders at $736 million, 22 percent below the rest of the league. Davis is 77-years-old, with ties to the Raiders for more than four decades, more than half his life. And his life is more than just jogging suits and law suits. He's one of only three coach/owners elected to the Hall of Fame. The others are Paul Brown and George Halas, both cornerstones of the NFL. Davis enjoys friends as diverse as his own staff. He's eulogized people like Sugar Ray Robinson and singer Sarah Vaughn. Some whisper that in 2007, the game has passed him by, and this actually makes him laugh. "That's a joke," he says in that wonderful sneer. "It's impossible for it to pass me by, I understand the game too well." Lesley Visser has been a pioneer and standard-bearer for her more than 30 years covering sports. She has spent half of her career at CBS Sports where she currently is a member of the network's lead broadcast team for NFL football. Lesley was inducted into the Pro Football HOF in 2006. She can be reached
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