Muammar Al Khadafi

NFL pioneer Al Davis, the iconic owner of the Oakland Raiders has passed away at age 82   .

Love him or hate him, the mark that Brooklyn, NY born Al Davis left on the game of football and the NFL is undeniable. 

In 1963 he became the coach and general manager of a struggling AFL franchise that was playing at a high school stadium and finished 1-13 the year before he arrived.   He turned them into the intimidating force that was the winningest team in professional sports during the 60s', 70's and 80's and claimed three Super Bowl championships in 1976, 1980 and 1983.

If there's a controversial event or iconic play in NFL lore, the Raiders are involved.   Whether it's the 'Heidi Game', the 'Immaculate Reception', the 'Holy Roller', 'Red Right 88', or the 'Tuck Rule Game', the history of the NFL and the history of the game thanks to Al Davis has an unmistakable silver and black thread and swagger.  



And yeah, some of the innovations and rule changes you're familiar with in modern day NFL football are the result of the Raiders in many cases, too.  

When your team's offense employs a 'vertical' passing game or plays 'bump and run' coverage, thank Al Davis and his Raiders for popularizing it. 

He was one of the few owners left in the NFL who made his money strictly from the income of the team and was an equal opportunity employer when it came to finding the best players and people to play for, coach and run his organization. 

He was the first to actively scout and mine HBCU's for football talent.  He was the first to draft an African-American quarterback, hire an African-American head coach in the modern era with his 1988 hire of Art Shell in 1988, the second Latino coach in Tom Flores, and the first female executive/CEO in Amy Trask.   

And speaking of hiring coaches, he was responsible for the trend of hiring young coaches.  He had some great ones such as Hall of Famer John Madden, Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden and Lane Kiffin, but as they will all tell you, the real coach of the Oakland Raiders was Al Davis.


In 1966 he became the last commissioner of the AFL and aggressively pursued NFL star players even as Lamar Hunt and other AFL owners were negotiating terms for a merger of the two leagues favorable to the AFL.   Davis' bellicose posturing and aggressive stances led to a common draft, the AFL-NFL Championship game that later became the Super Bowl and by 1970 the unified league.

One of the things he didn't get was becoming commissioner of the merged NFL, which went to Pete Rozelle   That led to a decades long feud between the two men, which fed into the Raiders 'us against the world' chip on their shoulders team mentality.  He sued the NFL and won the right to move the team to LA in the early 80's, then moved them back to Oakland in 1995.  

But his feuds and innovations reshaped pro football over the last half century and fuelled its rise to become the most popular sport in the US.

“He is a true legend of the game whose impact and legacy will forever be part of the NFL,” current NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.

One of the larger than life iconic personalities and owners of the league is gone, and will definitely be missed.

Today would have been the 53rd birthday of the King of Pop, who was born in Gary, IN on this date in 1958



He's gone, and his fans still love and miss him.  One thing is certain is that there won't be another artist like him to grace our lifetimes and his music will live on forever.  



But forgive me if I wished we could have gotten to see if MJ could have pulled off the 'This Is It' tour and what it would have done to revive his then stalled career.



That's all speculation now.  



Oh well, time to pull out the CD's.   Rest in peace King of Pop.

Was over at Dented Blue Mercedes and just had to link to the post in which Beth Elliot pwned the unjust anti-trans UN paper that radical lesbian trans oppressors Brennan and Hungerford wrote to the UN.

Who is Beth Elliott?  Only one of our trailblazing transwomen who is severely hated on by radical lesbian separatists. 



Beth penned a rebuttal to their unjust UN paper that would have deleterious effects on worldwide trans human rights

Honorable Commissioners, 

I write in regard to the CSW Communications Procedure submission of
1 August by Cathy Brennan and Elizabeth Hungerford alleging that gender
identity anti-discrimination statutes in the United States threaten to
violate women’s rights.  Specifically, I write in response and rebuttal
to those allegations.

Ms. Brennan and Ms. Hungerford’s submission is not an adequate
submission.  It does not at all comply with the Communications Procedure
Guidelines for identification and documentation of actual incidents of
human rights violations, and should be rejected on those grounds alone.

See the rest of what Beth Elliott had to say here

Today was the shocking day we got the word that Aaliyah and 8 other people in her entourage were killed in a 2001 plane crash in the Bahamas hours after filming the Rock The Boat video.



Hard to believe that was ten years ago.  



Aaliyah's name means in Arabic 'the highest, most exalted one, the best', and did she live up to it and then some. 



Aaliyah Dana Haughton was 22 years old and things were blowing up for her.   The Grammy nominated music career was putting her on the edge of superstardom.  She filmed Romeo Must Die in 2000, had a part in Queen of the Damned and was signed to do two others.   With her striking beauty she was beginning to get modeling work. She had already filmed part of her role in The Matrix Reloaded and was also tapped to do a role in The Matrix Revolutions.   As busy as she was with her various careers she still graduated at the top of her high school class.



And then she was gone.



I make the argument that had it not been for her untimely death, Beyonce and Rihanna wouldn't have had the giant void that they were filled because they would have spent the 2K's in Aaliyah's considerably growing shadow.   The role in the movie Honey that went to Jessica Alba was originally Aaliyah's and the Sparkle remake that she was to star in was canceled.



But sadly, we'll never know just how big a star she would have become..  You marvel at the fact that she accomplished in 22 years what some people take several lifetimes to do.  She was a remarkable young woman and our lives here on this planet are poorer with her not being a part of them.  







  

Rest in peace, Aaliyah.   You are still missed by your fans.