With Davis gone, Raiders enter lengthy ‘interim' stage

The matter of the Raider succession plan has now moved from the not-while-the-body-is-warm stage to the oh-my-God-now-what stage, and guess what?The process is going to take far longer than anyone thinks.Smart folks who understand this far better than you, I and the inveterate list-makers who are trying to fill the job before Saturdays Browns walk-through will tell you this will be a long and drawn-out process, and that the interim setup of Hue Jackson as the football guy and Amy Trask as the business ... um, non-guy is likely to endure awhile.GUTIERREZ: Five potential Raiders Football Czar candidates
The real issue isnt about the football, anyway. The real issue is about who will determine the full time football and business CEOs, and that has nothing to do with lists and everything to do with Carol and Mark Davis.One, do they want the team?

Two, can they afford to keep the team, with estate taxes being what they are for the underprepared?Three, will there be a new managing general partner with Als unlimited power, or does this become a matter of investors working collegially, as the new Giants master plan purports to be?Four, will said person be working in Oakland, or another city starting with L and ending in S? There are willing buyers out there, and now that Al Davis has died, the concept of the franchise under truly new ownership can be considered as something more than merely fanciful.In short, the Raiders current succession plan is none, as in a very status-y quo, pending developments. The ownership issue trumps all others, and answers all questions. Until that is settled, everything about the Raiders is interim.