Calvin Johnson is pretty much playing better than anyone else in the league right now. He can go off at any time. Not sure how you can say they're not explosive.

So have the Lions since...forever.

Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis dead at 82
By JOSH DUBOW, AP Sports Writer
1 hour, 23 minutes ago

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—Al Davis, the renegade owner of the Oakland Raiders who bucked NFL authority while exhorting his silver-and-black team to “Just win, baby!,” died Saturday. He was 82.

The Hall of Famer died at his home in Oakland, the team said. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

Davis was one of the most important figures in NFL history—a rebel with a subpoena. That was most evident during the 1980s when he went to court—and won — for the right to move his team from Oakland to Los Angeles. Even after he moved the Raiders back to the Bay Area in 1995, he sued for $1.2 billion to establish that he still owned the rights to the L.A. market.


It was Davis’ willingness to take on the establishment that helped turn the NFL into money-making giant that it is—the most successful sports league in American history.

“Al Davis’s passion for football and his influence on the game were extraordinary,” commissioner Roger Goodell said. “He defined the Raiders and contributed to pro football at every level. The respect he commanded was evident in the way that people listened carefully every time he spoke. He is a true legend of the game whose impact and legacy will forever be part of the NFL.”

But Davis was hardly an NFL company man.

Not in the way he dressed—usually satin running suits, one white, one black, and the occasional black suit, black shirt and silver tie. Not in the way he wore his hair—slicked back with a ’50s duck-tail. Not in the way he talked — Brooklynese with Southern inflection. Not in the way he does business—on his own terms, always on his own terms.

Elected in 1992 to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Davis was a trailblazer. He hired the first black head coach of the modern era—Art Shell in 1988. He hired the first Latino coach, Tom Flores; and the first woman CEO, Amy Trask. And he was infallibly loyal to his players and officials: to be a Raider was to be a Raider for life.

Coach Hue Jackson told the team of Davis’ death at a meeting in Houston on Saturday morning.
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