John Madden talks about Al Davis

On Monday morning, former Raiders coach John Madden commentedfor the first time about the death of his best friend, Raiders owner AlDavis, who passed away in Oakland on Saturday morning at the age of 82. Madden made the comments on his KCBS radio program. You can listento the full interview here.Here are a few of Maddens comments about the legendary Raidersowner:Early times:
I met Al Davisin the early 60s, came to work for the Raiders in 1967, and, directly orindirectly, I was with him the whole time
On hearing about Davispassing:
I was in shock when I heard it, and Im still a little thatway, I justAl Davis was the type of guy that you just didnt believe is gonnadieAnd, its AL DAVIS. When you hear it, it just doesnt seep inI mean, eventhough theres part of you that says that you know that hes gonna die, but theres another part that says Al Daviswill never die. And then, you know you think hes sick and not doing well, buthes a fighter and hell fight this and hes gonna win. And then, you hear thecall and you say well, you shouldnt be shocked, butIt was very, very shockingand I still am.On the differencebetween his public image and the person that so many Raiders, and former Raiders,knew:If you really knew him and were a part of him, he was themost loyal friend or person you could have...And like I said, I introduced Al into the into the Hall of Fame, and Al isnt for everyone. Everyones not going to Al was this or that, youknow that hes perfect, you know and all these things. But, if hes your friend,if you played for him, if you coached for him, if you were part of the NFL youknow, he was that guy. And there was no one that could be better at being thatguy than Al Davis.On the legendarily combativeAl Davis:
He stood up for what he believed. And he stood up for whathe thought was right, not only for him, but for other people. Now, that doesntmean that he was always right. But, he did enjoy that, I mean he enjoyed you know,standing up. No one was going to, he wasnt going to be a pushover for anyone.And, he did like a battle, and he did enjoy arguing. When I was coaching andall the way up until last week we had a phone call, and had an argument, but itwas a friendly one, I mean, he would always throw something out youd thinkwould be ridiculous and then hed want to hear what you said about it. So, a lotof that was manufactured. He wanted to know how strong you were on something sohe would say something contrarian, to have you defend it. And sometimes, he wasjust a contrarian, too.