Strangeness of the Raiders, Part I

You’ve got to hand it to Al Davis and the Raiders. Just when you think things can’t get any stranger, that’s exactly what they get.

Davis fired coach Lane Kiffin on Tuesday and named offensive line coach Tom Cable as the interim coach. Davis firing a coach isn’t exactly a news flash. He fires coaches as often as most NFL owners order an expensive bottle of wine. Since the end of the 2003 season, he has canned Bill Callahan, Norv Turner, Art Shell and now, Kiffin. I don’t think I left anyone out. It’s hard to keep track.

What took Raiders strangeness to a whole ’nother level, as Keegan-Michael Key would say, is the way Davis announced Kiffin’s firing. He turned Tuesday’s news conference into the Lane Kiffin Firing Palooza. He offered an exhaustive list of Kiffin’s transgressions. He called him a serial liar. He accused him of sabotaging the team. He blamed him for the trade of Randy Moss. He made sure we knew that Kiffin was fired “for cause,” not performance, and that Davis would not willingly pay him another dime.

But here’s what put this session over the top. Davis went power point on us and displayed a letter he had sent to Kiffin on Sept. 12, warning him that he’d be fired if he continued to publicly criticize him or the organization. Then he read the letter, line-by-line, offering periodic asides.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Oh yeah. Then there’s this. Davis actually held a two-part news conference with a 10-minute break in between. The first part was dedicated to Kiffin bashing. The second part was for introducing Cable as his interim coach.

I don’t want to leave any of the details out. So I thought I’d just give you the entire transcript. In this post, I’ll deal with the first session.

Opening statement by Al Davis:

“I start by saying that it is a regretful day, very much so ... It was January of ’07 when I was excited about the naming of a new head coach of the Raiders, a young guy who I thought was dynamic, I thought could carry the flag, carry the torch of the Raiders ... because I wanted to get young. I wanted to get young people into the organization. And we had our meeting here, I think it was in this room, and his family, I knew them, I knew them for about 30 years. His father once applied for a job with us when we were in Los Angeles, that was Monte Kiffin. I knew the father of Lane's wife. We were excited and I was excited. I knew it was a bold attempt, calculated, but I had always had great success -- at least I thought I did -- with young people, and even those that didn't stay with me long, I knew were qualified and quality and sometimes things just don't work out.

“It was after a short period of time that I realized I didn't hire the person I thought I was hiring. And there are reasons which I can go into. ... What I thought I would do is bring you up to right now. This morning I called Lane and told him that he no longer was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders and I was dismissing him with cause. I just couldn't go on much longer with what I would call the propaganda, the lying that had been going on for weeks and months and a year and time.

“He had a few questions. He says, ‘Does that mean I don't get paid?’ I said, ‘That is what I am saying to you.’ I said, ‘I warned you,’ and I will go over with you people exactly how I warned him. He asked me, ‘Is anyone else going to get fired or dismissed?’ I said, ‘Not at this particular time.’ He wanted to know who the head coach would be. And I wouldn't tell him because I hadn't finalized ... this was about 9:30 in the morning ... with the gentleman I was going to offer the opportunity to be head coach. I wouldn't tell him who the head coach was going to be. No sooner that I got off the phone with him, within five minutes, (ESPN’s Chris) Mortensen had the story exactly the way it went down. It could have been no one else (except Kiffin) other than (Raiders public relations people) John Herrera and Mike Taylor to have given that story to Mortensen. And Mortensen had a couple other things in the story that got me to the point where I am that I wanted to talk to you about one of the things Mortensen had in the story was a Raider source said that Davis privately sent a letter to Kiffin after the season's opening game loss to the Broncos, attempting to document that the coach approved the off-season acquisition of all those great players we signed ... or we think have a chance to be great. A source close to Kiffin described the claim as fiction. Now, this is the first time that they admit to you that there was a letter, communication, after the Denver game between the Raiders and Kiffin. For weeks we have heard on television that there has been no commitment or no communication between Al Davis and Lane Kiffin except before the Denver game.

“Totally untrue. After the Buffalo game, someone said, ‘Have you talked to Al Davis yet?’ He said, ‘I have not talked to Al Davis personally.’ Went all over the country. But yet, the night of the Buffalo game at the airport, he did talk to me. And we talked on several subjects which I can tell you about if you are interested.

“So I wasn't going to do this, but I am going to give you the letter that was given to Lane on the Friday before we went to Kansas City. It was after his false accusations on a Wednesday night about the defense belonging to Al Davis and (Rob Ryan) and attacking Rob Ryan publicly which was unfair, unheard of in professional football that the head coach would attack one of his assistants. But I sent him a letter, gave it to him actually, on the Friday before we went to Kansas City and Federal Expressed that letter to him. And I would like to have John (Otten) put up the first page of that letter if you will bear with me -- it's about three pages.

(Davis' Letter to Kiffin)

‘"Over the past months you have made a number of public statements that were highly critical of and designed to embarrass and discredit the organization and players and coaches. I left you alone during training camp … in the hopes that you would cease your immature and destructive campaign.’ (“I wanted to make this work. I really did. I felt we had a chance. We had some great new young players, we DO have some great new young players. We have added some veteran players.) “However you continued to make public statements that are critical of the organization, its players as whole as well as individual players.

“‘Such statements constitute conduct detrimental to the Raiders. And I (will) no longer stand silently by while you continue to hurt this organization. Further, your contract is quite clear, that you work subject to the direction and supervision of the general partner, and that the general partner has the exclusive right to do all things which is in the sole discretion are necessary to maintain and improve the club, the football organization, and their activities.

“‘I realized when I hired you that you were young and inexperienced and that there would be a learning process for you. Your mistakes on player personnel and coaches were overlooked based on our patience with you. But I never dreamt that you would be untruthful in attempts and in statements in the press, as well, as so many other issues. Your actions are those of a coach looking to make excuses for not winning, rather than a coach focused on winning.

“‘For example, with the exception of Gibril Wilson, you were involved in recruiting all free agents and determining salaries for them and you were explicit about your desire to sign Javon Walker and DeAngelo Hall, amongst others. All were a must to sign in your eyes. Hall, in particular, because he played for Greg Knapp in Atlanta and that gave him high grades. Don't run from that now.

(“Coaches sometimes draft players, they make the pick and they run from it. I believe that there are players, we live with them, they got to play for us and no matter what you think of Al, we got to love them. That's the way this world is.”)

“‘I realize that you did not want to draft JaMarcus Russell. He is a great player. Get over it and coach this team on the field. That is what you were hired to do. We can win with this team.

(“Now, why did I say that? I said it because that was the battle at the draft, my first draft with him. About seven days before the draft, he came to me and he said he didn't think we should draft JaMarcus. And I told him we were going to draft JaMarcus. He had other ideas.”)

“‘In regards to your recent fabrications about the defense, during the final cuts, you made every cut on offense and every cut on defense, except for Wakefield on defense and Wand on offense. Furthermore, during the game Monday night, Rob played your Cover-2 defense, and we got killed on an approximately 50-yard touchdown pass and an approximately 70-yard gain that led to a field goal.

(“Now, he has never said to you people, at least he does individually, that I wrote this letter to him and there's no way he can hide from it because he got it.”)

“‘You meet every week with the defensive coaches to go over both the game plan and to get a general feel for what will happen during the week in practice. You have the ability and authority to provide your input during those meetings and preparation of the game plan. I do not have meetings with Rob at all. You do.

“‘During the week, no one has ever told you what to do either offense or defense. In addition, no one has ever told you during a game what to do on either offense or defense, and you still call every play.

(“Now in the past two years, he has called every play on offense, but this past week he split it with another coach. And that's the reason, maybe, that the ball went up a little bit. But no one has bothered him. No one has interfered with him. He was hired to coach the team”).

“‘Although you continue to use the media to express your dissatisfaction with others, no one has publicly pointed out to them that in four preseason games and one regular-season game played this year, your offense has scored one first-half touchdown. That put tremendous pressure on the defense.

(“Now, we have played eight games, and we have two first-half touchdowns, one in the preseason and one in the regular season. It's pretty tough for any football team and to continuously blame the defense. You just can't get away with it”).

“‘I know that you wanted to bring your father in to run the defense, and Monte -- that's Monte Kiffin told me that he wanted to come here, even though he is under contract to Tampa. I did not want to tamper with another team.

(“We had our attorneys call Bruce Allen and tell him that Monte Kiffin, because otherwise it's a tampering charge, talked to me and all he talked to me was about Lane, how to handle Lane and things like that. What he really wanted to do was come here and coach.”)

“‘In any event, that was over seven months ago. Do not now, run from the defense and your responsibilities. The letter constitutes notice that if you violate any term of your contract in any manner whatsoever, you will be terminated for cause. I trust that this will not occur.’”

(End of Letter to Kiffin)

“This was a warning to him, that he’s got to be a coach, that he’s got to take care of the players. He’s got to do his job and stop complaining every day that he doesn’t have this, he doesn’t have that.

“Now, admittedly, he didn’t think we could win with this team. This was in January, February. He didn’t think we could win with this team. As we started to sign the free agents, as we started to bring them in, and no matter what anybody says about the amount of money we spent because you don’t always win in a negotiation with a player, we don’t always win with a coach. The idea most of the time is to get the player, get the good players to try to win. He finally came to the point when he said, and he said it to some of you, that we look great on paper. Now we’ve got to put the pieces together and make them work, and that’s his job. But when we went to training camp, someone somewhere gave him the idea that he could get out of his job and still get paid. And that’s what he was doing. He was everyday harping, ‘We don’t do this, we don’t do that, and attacking players publicly. Agents calling me, ‘What’s going on?’ And one agent did call him and challenged him, that this can’t go on, what you’re doing to my client. Just can’t go on.

“We played the Buffalo game and after the game I met him at the airport and I asked him some questions, talked to him about it and didn’t think anything of it until the next day when he met with you people and someone asked him, ‘Have you talked to Al?’ He said, ‘I’ve never talked to Al since before the Denver game. It’s all documented that he had talked to me that night in front of the strength coach, in front of one of our publicists, and in front of one of our coaches about the game. And at that time I asked him a couple of questions. I said to him, ‘Tell me something, where’d those two timeouts go? Where’d they go? And his answer was beyond the wall. And the only thing I say to you when I say beyond the wall, that means beyond comprehension. I say to you, if we had 20 seconds left on the clock, and one timeout, they had kicked a field goal to go ahead by two points, and they kicked off to us, and we threw a pass and got to about their 40-yard line, after the run-back of the kickoff, now Janikowsk’s trying a what, a 57-yard field goal to win the game, not trying a 75-yard field goal to what, I don’t know. What I’m saying to you is there was no rhyme or reason to the clock management there. I understand that he’s young and the experience will come. I understand it. But see, he takes exception when you question him. I wanted to know why we went with five safeties in the game, three corners and we got a corner hurt in the game and we were in a little trouble, and he put down one of our players off the dressing roster because he was going to show me that he had some authority and he really didn’t have the authority to do it and I challenged him. He said, ‘Well, I talked to the defensive coaches.’ A defensive coach was standing right there and the defensive coach said, ‘And we told you not to do it. We didn’t want to do it.’ He put down C.J. Johnson, who played in this game because we some hurt.

“What I’m saying to you is it started to go where it was tough, tough to believe anything that was being said. Then yesterday, I think it was yesterday, someone of you asked him, ‘Have you talked to Al?’ And all of a sudden he said, I’m not going to tell you if I’ve talked to Al, after having denied talking to me, after having denied having communication, I’m not going to tell you what goes on between Al and I. But in the past, ho, ho, ho, he couldn’t wait to talk about what goes on between Al and I.

“I reached a point where I felt the whole staff, we were fractionalized, that the best thing to do to get this thing back was to make a change. It hurts because I picked the guy. I picked the wrong guy. There’s a lot more to this, a lot more to it. There’s this business of me sending him a resignation letter. That is not the truth at all. I never sent him a resignation letter. What happened was, after the season, he told me he didn’t want Rob Ryan. I said, ‘We’re going to keep him.’ You got 24 coaches - I think we got 24 coaches, now you can question it. Maybe we got 22 and they say someone’s not a real coach, but it’s almost unheard of, 24 coaches. I didn’t want … to change the entire staff and bring in his father. He said, ‘Well. I can’t win with this guy. I can’t win with this team.’ And we had had the problem with JaMarcus and someday, I don’t think it’s‘ important now because I love the guy, he had JaMarcus all wrong. He had him all wrong in his thinking about him and JaMarcus has proved a lot of you wrong, a lot of people wrong.

“He was going to be the overweight guy. He was going to be the uninterested guy, and he was never that way. We had a player here who played in Alabama, high school, the same high school as JaMarcus and was telling me about JaMarcus when JaMarcus was 12 years old. We had a player here who was a great player at Tennessee when they won the national championship, Tee Martin the quarterback. He played at the same high school as JaMarcus. So I knew JaMarcus wasn’t that kind of kid. But, he said, we can’t win. We got to get a rookie quarterback. We can’t win with this. So I said to him, ‘What do you mean you can’t win?’ And he said, ‘Well, we can’t win.’ And I said, ‘Then do the honorable thing. If you don’t think you can win, resign. If you don’t think you can win, resign. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ So, he was after a job in college that he didn’t get, and it’t amazing how Bobby Petrino took the job.

“They had called me. A friend of mine who is very big at the University of Arkansas called me and said, ‘They’re interested in Lane Kiffin. What do you think? I said, ‘Let him finish the season and do what you want, whatever he wants. Finish the season.’ They said, ‘OK, we’ll wait.’ However, Petrino had a chance to get the job, and that’s why he really left Atlanta sooner than the season was over because he wanted to beat Lane for the job. Lane was upset as hell about it and went after some other job. And Lane said to me this: ‘Will you let me go and not ask for any penalties if I leave and go to a college job or go to another job. I said, ‘Lane, if you say you’re not going to get paid, if you’re going to resign, I’ll certainly let you go right after the season.’ His attorney, Gary Uberstine, and our attorney, Jeff Birren, worked out the language and it was about a quarter of a page, and all it says was, ‘Lane Kiffin resigns his job with the Oakland Raiders, expecting no remuneration -- or is it renumeration? -- and the Raiders will take no action to stop him from taking another job based on his contract. That was the story of what he called, supposedly -- he’s got (Chris) Mortensen. Mortsensen comes in. He lies. He’s a professional liar. He got Mortensen to say that I sent him a letter, which I never did, and a lot of you carried the fact that I sent him a letter. So, what I’m saying to you is this is regretful but I thought it was best for the Raiders. And I wanted to make it work because I want the Raiders to do great. Someone said to me the other day, a newspaperman, ‘Why don’t you tell us your side of the story? Why don’t you tell us what’s happening? And I said, ‘Look, I don’t want to win in the press. I want to win on the field.’ But I’m telling you because I had to regretfully let him go. It’s based on cause, and it’s not based on, necessarily, performance, because I understand what we’re doing, although I think we can do better.

“I assume there’s a lot more. What I wanted to say is we signed DeAngelo Hall, Gibril Wilson, Kalimba Edwards, Tommy Kelly, Javon Walker, Kwame Harris, Justin Fargas, Dar ren McFadden. These were the high-priced people this year. Not every one has been a factor, but you’ve got to stick with players. I remember last year all during training camp -- and it was tough on me because I didn’t want to do it -- we traded Randy Moss for a fourth-round draft choice. Randy Moss for a fourth-round draft choice. And everyone here, the coaches look at the film. His foot was bothering him. (The belief) around the country (was) that he can’t run anymore. Well, I had seen him. I go to practice. I had seen him run. They talk now, ‘Boy, if we had a playmaker.’ Well, all he caught was over 20 touchdowns last year. If we had a playmaker. But, those are the facts of life. We’ve had some great players come through here. In 2003, 2004, Rich Gannon went down with knee injuries. We let Kerry Collins go. He’s driving Tennessee pretty good right now. And, we’ll get back, we’ll be back. The Raiders will be back. I have unshakeable confidence, the will to win, and I just know that the fire that burns brightest in this building is the will to win, and we will win. We will win.”


Q: Who will be the next head coach ?

A: “I thought what we would do was go through the question and answer, then take a little break and then we’ll bring him back.”

Q: At the end of last year, there were problems with Lane that went on February, March. Why not fire him in the offseason as opposed to this part of the year when it’s going to kind of disrupt the season?

A: “Because I wanted to make it work, to be real honest. It’s my belief that I would work and it could work. I wanted to make it work. Maybe I didn’t want to admit that I’d made a mistake. And to be quite frank with you, I’m firing him for cause right now. I’m not firing him for anything else other than cause.”

Q: Your motto is just win baby, one of your mottos. You’re saying you’re firing Lane more for cause than on-field performance. Do you feel the team has improved under his watch, and doesn’t that motto, just win, imply that you will overlook personality traits and past history if it can produce a winning team on the field?

A: “I don’t really follow. I want to win, if that’s what you’re asking me. I don’t know what you meant by the back part of the question, that I will follow personality traits. What did you mean by that?”

Q: Why would you fire Kiffin over a personality conflict?

A: “It’s not a personality conflict. It’s flat-out accusations of lying, bringing disgrace to the organization. He took a young coach who had criticized him and suspended him, didn’t tell me about it. Then actually, crazy like, said, ‘You’d better go to a doctor to get examined.’ And suspended him. He was the best worker (Lane) ever had. He told me that repeatedly. But the coach criticized him. But two days later, (Lane) goes out and criticizes Rob Ryan publicly. No, I don’t think I could lose necessarily with Lane. But I didn’t think I could win anymore, based on what he’s done to this staff and what he’s done to the defense and what he’s done to some of the assistants.

“If I thought so, I probably would have stayed with it. But it didn’t have to do with winning. It had to do with personality. It’s the first time I ever let anyone go based on what I call just a flat-out liar. I mean, let me ask you something: Did he tell you that for two weeks, other than prior to the Denver game, that he has not heard from me?”

“He did. Did he tell you after the Buffalo game that he has never talked to me since before the Denver game? It’s a flat-out lie. We talked several times. And the letters -- I sent him another letter; if you want, I’ll read the other letter to you. Because I had to caution him about lying to the press continuously. But you see, they know I won’t do much. I won’t talk. I never once, when he would lie, raise my hand and say, ‘He’s lying,’ or something like that. They know I don’t. I let it go. Like I said, I thought he was young and immature and that someone would grab him by the throat and tell him that he was doing the wrong thing. But his own father and Pete (Carroll), they’re the advisors, somewhere they got lost in this thing.”

Q: When did you realize he wasn’t the coach you thought you hired?

A: “Well, his attitude, to be real honest, toward people. When he took the job, if you remember his admonitions and statements were, ‘We’ve got great players, we have a great defensive coach in Rob Ryan, I’m excited, I looked at the defense, I’m excited about the offense.’ And I realized that what they were more interested in was cleaning out the locker room and getting their guys in there than winning. And I can only say to you, I have a different opinion on this thing. And you can talk to anyone who has won a lot of games in life that the locker room is a great locker room when you’re winning. And it’s not a great locker room when you’re losing. Sometimes you can hold it together when you’re losing. I just didn’t like his attitude toward people, toward coaches, toward everyone. If you look at the staff that he hired, he wanted to fire everyone, get rid of everyone.

“We had players who had played eight or nine years here, that I asked him to be careful with, just … give them a chance. I can’t let a guy go. I admit this. Take Zack Crockett. He played here eight or nine years, got touchdowns for us and all. And I just can’t let him go, like they can just close the door and get ’em out of here. And I just don’t operate that way. I couldn’t get him to feel toward ex-Raiders the way I wanted him to feel. But I thought he would because when he came here for the job, ‘Oh, I know about the history, I know about the organization, I know about the history, I know about this. Bull. We had a publicist and he didn’t want him at practice. I said to him, ‘Why don’t you want him at practice? ‘Well, we don’t need him out at practice.’ So he’s not at practice.”

Q: Do you feel you have enough of a case documented against your coach that if Kiffin and his representatives go to Roger Goodell for a grievance that you would prevail?

A: “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think I was going to prevail. … That’s why I sent him the letter. I sent the letter and defined to him at the end of the letter … just coach the team. That’s what you are paid to do, that’s what you were hired to do. Coach the team. And any other accusations, any other step out of line and I’m going to fire you for cause. And that’s the only thing that I thought would get him. But he still kept on going. Why (did) Mortensen know about the letter and none of you people knew about it, and Mortensen just came with it today? It’s because (Lane) gave it to him. He feels that’s the way to go. Then Mortensen broke the story that I was interviewing three guys. … No sooner than the three guys left the office one, two, three, it was running on the wires. Unless there’s someone upstairs, our executive secretaries, I don’t know.’

Q: Four coaches have been fired since 2003. You said you made a mistake on this one. How much responsibility do you bear for what’s gone on?

A: “I bear the responsibility. Yeah, it takes a toll on me. It sure does.”

Q: Do you feel this organization is better and should they have more wins than just one this year?

A: “I don't want to get into that. I'm not here to discuss the team. I'm here to discuss my letting Lane go and why and the reasons for it. I love this team. I think this team can win. I think this team can win. Let me just say I see every team in the league, I look at the tapes. I see one or two that may be a little bit above the rest. For example, Buffalo is 4-0 and we can play with Buffalo. San Diego is 2-2, we're getting closer. We can play with San Diego. There's one or two that may be above. But other than that this league is starting to balance out. We'll get there. If we keep him alive, he's good. This kid from LSU, he's a good player and a good kid. We're going to make him great. We'll get there. McFadden is a hell of a player. We have some great players, we really do. Asomugha is a great player. We've gotten a little banged up and all but we'll see. It's not over yet.”

Q: What was last straw for Lance?

A: “I don't think it was any one thing. It was a cumulative thing. The pattern just disturbed me. The first question he asked me when I said you would be fired or was relieved for cause was, 'Are you going to pay me?' First question. There are a lot of people who believe in the organization that he wanted to be fired but he wanted to be paid.”

Q: Are you concerned that by building a case before acting you sabotaged the season?

A: “Yeah. But I thought we would do a little better in the season. I think it's together. I think it's together. I don't want to get in to football tactics or strategy. That's not why I'm here. I don't want to get into that. I could say for example three passes in the second half against Buffalo. Just beyond. We're not Woody Hayes. If this kid is going to be what I think he is we have to let him go. He can play. But I don't want to get into tactics or strategy. I did mention one, on the field goal, the time management, the clock management. Even in this game, we might have gotten 20 yards closer with a pass just before the 75-yard field goal with clock management.”

Q: Do you personally believe he was daring you to fire him?

A: “That's a good question. I don't know what he was doing but he got me to fire him.”

Q: Is the new coach interim?

A: “Excuse me, it's an interim coach. And he's not going to come in, he's here now. By that I mean he's on the staff.”

Q: Will he be here for a while?

A: “I haven't made that decision relative to how long he'll be here. I want to give him an opportunity. He has a love of the Raiders, he always has had, he wanted to come here. That's another thing, you hear about coaches, that it will be tough for him to get a coach because coaches don't want to get in over here and it will be tough to get a coach. Then the statement was made about two weeks ago that I had to recruit these coaches, a lot of them didn't want to come here. But go talk to them. He even listed Rob Ryan as some coach who didn't want to come here. It got to the point where I think he forgets who he's talking about. You talk to Greg Knapp, who coached for us, who's been here before. Talk to Tom Cable, talk to anyone. There are a lot of people who want to come here and there are a lot of guys out there who are doing TV who were on the phone this morning just wondering what I am going to do. And they all had pretty good names so we'll find out.”

Q: How much does it bother you personally that there has been so much upheaval these last few years?

A: “It bothers me. A great deal. Yeah it bothers me because I like to think that wherever you go in the world, you say Silver and Black, you say Raiders. We do have great fans and we have a lot of things coming up you know. We have three more years, '08, '09, '10 with the players associated and then there's a work stoppage possibly in '11. You have to be prepared for that. We have stadium. There's a lot of things. It bothers me. I want it to g in the right direction with youth and see if we can build something that way.”

Q: How much of a detriment are repeated coaching changes to your success?

A: “Not every season. Well obviously I don't think that a coach has to be more than four years because I think this thing is cycle, cyclical, cycle now. You got to remember one of the guys on TV the other day said the Raiders had been in the Super Bowl in 2002. Dallas hasn't been there since I don't know when, 1995 or something. No one in the West has been there in about 20 years, Kansas City, Denver about 10 years. We've been in 2000, 2001 and 2002. And we hit a thing that I admit that I didn't think we'd hit. I didn't think it possible that we'd hit these couple of years. But as I told you, we'll get it back. I do believe that it's good to have one guy for four or five years.”

Q: Who shared playcalling with Lane against Chargers and what's up with Mark Jackson?

A: “As far as I know he is. Why have you dismissed him? The one who shared the playcalling was Greg Knapp. But other than that in the past year and three games, Lane has called all the plays on offense.

Q: If you won these past two games would he still have been fired?

A: “Yes he would be if the same events took place.”