It was sad for Joe to learn that Mr. Raider himself, Al Davis, passed.

He was in declining health for some time. When the Bucs played the Raiders in the Super Bowl in January 2003, Davis, walking out of his airplane, barely made it down the stairs. He had to walk backwards. There have been some photos of Davis using a walker in recent years.

Without trying to be crass, maybe fate today was better than suffering?

When Joe grew up, the Raiders, to use a phrase from former Raiders announcer Bill King, were “kings of the world.” Sort of.

The Raiders always seemed to be on TV for the late-afternoon games. Of course, they were on Monday Night Football a lot.

Davis was the only man in NFL history who was a scout, an assistant coach, a coordinator, a head coach, a general manager,, an owner and a commissioner (he was the last commissioner of the American Football League).

Davis built a team that was fun as hell to watch. Quick, long throws downfield, and on defense, his band of bloodthirsty misfits turned each game into a street alley brawl. If the old Raiders played today under Roger Goodell’s touch football rules, half of Davis’ defenders would be thrown out of the league.

(Joe was a kid in grade school and in American History, a particular nun was infatuated with the original California missions and we had to recite them from memory. When reciting the original California missions, Joe always said Oakland, mainly because of the Raiders and partly to hack off the nun, which it did, visibly so. Of course, Oakland is not a correct answer.)

But as much as Davis meant to football and the NFL, Davis played a big part in Bucs history. It was Davis who some say fleeced Team Glazer for first and second round draft picks in 2002, a first round pick in 2003 and a second round pick in 2004, plus cash.

In return the Bucs got Chucky. And what happened? Chucky got the Bucs over the hump and won a Super Bowl. Yeah, without those picks, it partly led to the Bucs dropping off the face of the map. But that is easy to swallow when you have a Super Bowl pelt on the wall.

Joe will never forget the press conference Davis had after that transaction. Davis claimed Joel Glazer called him in the middle of the night to offer a trade and Davis snapped at him saying, “I’m not talking to you. I will only talk to Rich McKay.” Davis claimed that Glazer informed him that he had fired McKay (which wasn’t accurate) and Davis and Glazer then talked turkey that led the Bucs to acquire Chucky.

Did Glazer do a deal with the devil? Perhaps. But it got the Bucs the Vince Lombardi trophy.

As Davis himself would say, “Just win baby.”