In recent years it's become almost cliche to mock Al Davis. Jokes about his appearance and some of his questionable draft choices abound. The man became almost a caricature of himself. His passing this past weekend is an opportunity to take a look at what he has done for the game of football and the legacy he's left behind. 

Davis started his professional football career as the offensive end coach for the Raiders in 1960. In 1962 he was hired as the general manager and head coach of the Raiders. At the time he was 33 and the youngest ever head coach in professional football. This was the first major milestone that he set for football. The idea that young coaches could come in and be successful in the league.

He immediately moved on to his next innovation which would be the vertical air game. Basically it was a modfied version of the offense run by Sid Gillman. He kept the ideas of the spread, but instead of short passes he attacked down field. This was his second innovation. Before this time most teams concentrated solely on the run game, with passing coming only in desperate situations. Al Davis believed in being agressive and attacking his opponents. 

This strategy earned him the AFL's Coach of the Year award for 1963.

In 1965 he was named to be the AFL Commissioner and this is where he really impacted the game of football. The AFL had previously been looked down as a sort of minor league or sideshow. Pete Rozell did all he could to foster this image, and Al Davis was determined to change this.

Davis encouraged the AFL teams to agressively pursue college recruits. This led to inflated contracts and some interesting stories about players being kept from view until they had signed contracts (usually by taking them out and showing them on the town with minders in tow). One result of this was Joe Namath being offered a contract of $400,000, at that time the highest amount ever paid to a player coming out of college. 

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As we look through 49ers history, Roger Craig and Frank Gore usually get a ton of love in the argument over best running back in 49ers history. Roger Craig was a dual rushing/receiving threat while Marshal Faulk and Ladanian Tomlinson were still learning about football. Frank Gore has put up some monster numbers in a short period of time while playing on some fairly abysmal offenses. Both are great running backs.

However, before Craig or Gore, or Ricky Watters or anybody else came along, the 49ers had a running back named Joe Perry. Although Frank Gore is climbing the team's all-time leaderboard, Joe Perry remains the franchise's all-time leading rusher with 8,689yards and 68 rushing touchdowns. He made his way into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969 after a career that included one MVP, two first-team All Pros, and three Pro Bowl nods. He was a part of the Million Dollar backfield that included Hugh McElhenny, John Henry Johnson, and Y.A. Tittle.

in light of his passing, I know we've got some NN community members that have been 49ers fans since waaaaay back in the day. All I know about Perry and those old 49ers days is what I've read on the Internet and in books. If you had a chance to watch Perry play, or have stories you heard from your dad or grandfather, feel free to post them in the comments.

I apologize to everyone that I wasn't able to get this written up sooner. Unfortunately, 49ers' limited partner Franklin Mieuli passed away of natural causes on April 25 of this year. Mieuli may be best known for having been majority owner of the Golden State Warriors from 1962 through 1986, but his influence has been felt throughout Bay Area sports as a limited owner with both the San Francisco 49ers and San Francisco Giants.

Franklin Mieuli was born on September 14, 1920, in San Jose, California. He was 89 years old on the day that he left us.

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Ask, and ye shall receive, schlecko...

This is an idea straight from the Story Ideas Open Thread, one that I really enjoyed, and decided to turn into a front-page story. This, as the title insists, is a cathartic release of tension over the first half of the 2008 San Francisco 49ers season. More specifically, this is for you, the Niners Nation, to get your frustration out about this man, J.T. O'Sullivan...

via media.sacbee.com

This past season the San Francisco 49ers employed a quarterback by the name of John Thomas (or J.T.) O'Sullivan, a journeyman QB than had made eight stops at seven different NFL franchises along the way to the bay (Saints, Packers, Bears, Vikings, Patriots, Panthers, Bears again, and Lions).

Brought in as a QB familiar with new offensive coordinator Mike Martz's complicated-as-[site decorum] offensive scheme, J.T. was signed to a one-year contract on February 29th, 2008. At first, he was not expected to compete for the starting QB job. However, as the season progressed, we found out that J.T. had grasped Martz's offensive game plan quicker than the other QBs on the roster (being familiar with it from his stint with the Lions), and on August 22nd, 2008, then head coach Mike Nolan announced that J.T. had moved up the depth chart to the number 1 QB.

And then it happened...

Game after game we would witness our 49ers throw away games as J.T.O. AKA Just Turn Overs, Just Terrible O'Sullivan, Just Take (him) Out, etc, would seemingly gift-wrap the ball and present it as a present to opponents time and time again. In the two wins he was leading the offense for (@ Seattle and vs. Detroit), he had 3 TDs and zero intereceptions. It was the losses that killed him/us. In the six losses where he was at QB, he had 5 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and 11 fumbles, six of them lost to the defense, resulting in a grand TD to INT ratio of 5:17, or 3.4 turnovers for every one touchdown thrown.

We all know what happened after that. Mike Nolan was fired after a loss to the NY Giants (it hurt, I was there) and Mike Singletary was named interim Head Coach. After JTO's week 8 debacle against Seattle (Fearless Leader's first game as a Head Coach) J.T. was benched for the remainder of the season, and Shaun Hill became QB of the 49ers, turning them around from 2-6 to 7-9 (that's a 5-3 tenure as starting QB there folks) where he had a 13:8 TD:INT ratio, be it not for that god-forsaken run up the middle on MNF by Michael Robinson vs the Cardinals, Hill might have led us to the playoffs (I can't believe it still hurts)...

Now, why did I give this outline of pain and anguish from last season? Because it is time to let it all out folks. Consider this your "I hate you J.T. O'Sullivan" thread. Vent your anguish over the last season, over how crappy JTO was, over how things could have been different if J.T. didn't hand other teams games. I understand there are people out there, such as Fooch, that are happy JTO came along. Without him, Sing would not be head coach, Martz and Nolan might still be in town, Hill might not be QB now, we might not have gotten Crabtree, whatever; I understand, and agree, with some of those positions. If that be the case for you, maybe you might want to skip this thread. For those still hurting from last season, you've come to the right place. Guys, let it out all at once, and lets move on.

I am going to make a rare exception to the rules here, and I'm going to put it in bold letters so everyone knows how super serial I am about this:

FOR THIS THREAD, AND THIS THREAD ONLY, I WILL ALLOW CURSING, SWEARING, AND AWFUL, AWFUL LANGUAGE. IF YOU ARE NOT OK WITH FOUL LANGUAGE, AVOID THIS THREAD LIKE THE PLAGUE. I REPEAT: FOR THIS THREAD, AND THIS THREAD ONLY, FOUL LANGUAGE IS ALLOWED ACROSS THE BOARD!!!

To set the stage for this abuse, I have a few clips for you guys to remind you how awful it was with J.T. at the helm of the team. We have Week 4 vs the Saints, Week 5 vs the Patriots (a game we DEFINATELY could have won), and his last game, Week 7 vs the Giants. Sorry...