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Like Humpty Dumpty or King Nebuchadnezzar?
To him or her that has an ear in the R.N., read the following corollary and parallel of the true story of King Nebuchadnezzar, "the great king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, who reigned from 605 to 562 B.C." (Modern day Iraq.)
King Nebuchadnezzar was a famed conqueror, having defeated many peoples. Some of those who were defeated by him were Egypt, Tyre, Edom and Judah, all of them powerful nations in their time. In addition to his victorious conquests, Nebuchadnezzar was known for his great building projects. Both biblical history and secular history, along with archeological findings, confirm the fact that King Nebuchadnezzar was a great and powerful ruler, his fame, riches, power and ability no doubt playing a big part in his becoming a very prideful man.
Nebuchadnezzar's Pride
Nebuchadnezzar gave himself all of the credit for the power and wonders of his kingdom and his edicts were law, transgressing them a capitol offense and case. Even though he had seen with his own eyes how the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego protected them from the intense heat of the King’s fiery furnace, upon a death sentence. Nebuchadnezzar did not learn anything from that and, instead, persisted in his proud full ways anyway. Soon he began to dream alarming dreams, which he did not understand. He asked his court of wise men to interpret the dreams, but they were mystified. He then turned to Daniel, the Prophet, and asked him to explain the visions.
Understanding the meanings, Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that, true, his glory and fame as a great ruler had spread all over the world, but there was a problem: Nebuchadnezzar had become too prideful and, as a result, was soon to be humbled. He told the King that only when he gave up his pride would his kingdom be restored to him. Unfortunately, Nebuchadnezzar’s great pride would not let him change. He went on just as before and his kingdom was lost to him as well as his abilities to make any good decisions or act in even his own best interests.
Corollary and Parallel:
Oftentimes self-pride will not allow a once-successful person to turn their business, whatever it may be, over to more current competent hands. How many businesses, nations and organizations have been littered throughout history because those in leadership did not adapt and were too proud to change? They say," Well, we have always done it this way." But what happens when "this way" no longer works?
The once powerful Oakland Raiders are rapidly becoming like nothing more than a Minor League team. And we all know what Minor League teams do: they develop coaches and players for greater success--elsewhere. Consider Mike Shanahan, Mike White and Jon Gruden, who have four Super Bowl rings between them. Some of those rings might have been ours had not those coaches been let go too soon. What will be the fate of Lane Kiffin after this year? Will he, God forbid, land another job in AFC West, where he might make a hall of fame career out of sticking it to the Raiders just as Mike Shanahan has done?
We all know that you have to have stability at quarterback and at Head Coach to have success in the NFL. Instability at quarterback and at head Coach have become a Raider problem, and we are now for the first time in our history in danger of no longer being an attractive free-agent draw. We depend upon the free-agent system in light of a recent history of hit and miss drafts and draft picks. It remains to be seen if we can still draw players because, it remains to be seen if anyone would want to come to this well, mess.
Lane Kiffin is a good Head Coach and a below-average Offensive Coordinator by NFL standards. Did Al Davis really believe that Kiffin would turn this team around with USC's playbook? Look, as a Head Coach, Kiffin's team never quit and he did achieve buy in—all good. As an Offensive Coordinator, though, he has poor clock management skills, no imagination, and even worse red zone play calling. He needs to make better adjustments and score more points if he will save his job, assuming he will even still want it.
When it became apparent last season that his defense could not win games, Al Davis has to have wondered why didn't his offense win games? In which case, why did Lane not open it up and run some spread offenses and no huddle at times? Kiffin said, "We don't have the personnel for that." But still we all saw him run only two wide outs on passing downs in the Red zone--two wide outs into the teeth of cover four deep zones? Somehow I can hear you echoing my, “WTF Lane,” this past season. Obviously Al Davis did too, or so it would seem.
Coach Kiffin had better get some cutups of Bill Callahan's old offenses and learn to score some points. He needs to do this or hand over the play calling to the proven NFL Offensive Coordinator that we have in Greg Knapp.
Al Davis, on the other hand, needs to stand down and give a kid a break. Certainly when Al Davis was a Head Coach, he had a supportive, encouraging environment from then owner Ed McGah and company. Why won't Mr. Davis do the same for the young green kid Kiffin? If he won’t do this, then the disturbing question many are voicing aloud now is: who in their right mind would want the job of Head Coach of the Oakland Raiders?
After much tribulation, King Nebechanezzar finally learned from his experiences that pride goes before a fall and amended his thinking, prideful ways and who he gave credit to for his success. The story concludes in Genesis that thereafter his later reign was even greater than his former. As fans of the Oakland Raiders and Al Davis, we all want to see Mr. Davis and the Raiders end well in his tenure and on his watch. That’s what we want first and foremost. But we are at the unhappy point now where we must ask Mr. Davis to please stand down and let Kiffin do his job. Otherwise it’s a fair bet to say that once again he will only succeed in creating just another man who will leave and live to defeat our once proud, now humbled team, organization and fan base.
Al Davis must decide what the legacy of Al Davis will be. Will he be a Humpty Dumpty or like a King Nebechanezzar, who left this testimony for all of human history to read; which was to say in substance, “I was down but not out. Hallelujah and my later reign was even greater than my former.” Make no mistake that Al Davis’ legacy and memory will henceforth directly depend upon and be interdependent to his relationships with his Head Coaches and how he treats them. This is true starting with Lane Kiffin, and this is true as of yesterday.
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