NY writer says Crazy Al's Raiders doomed failures

This piece appeared in Newsday Sunday morning. It's a sort of follow up on the bizarre press conference Al Davis held denouncing coach Lane Kifin and proclaiming he won't pay the balance of Kifin's contract:

On Jan. 22, 2009, Al Davis will celebrate a dubious anniversary, one that says all you need to know about how out of touch the Raiders' managing general partner has become.

On that day, it will have been 25 years since the Raiders last won the Super Bowl. On Jan. 22, 1984, Davis' Raiders routed the Redskins, 38-9, in Super Bowl XVIII.

Since then, Davis' franchise has wallowed mostly in misery, with the owner himself the root cause of all that has afflicted the team he affectionately refers to as the Raiduhs.

There is little hope of a turnaround anytime soon. In fact, Davis, 79, sunk to a new low Tuesday when he held a news conference announcing the firing of yet another head coach - Lane Kiffin - after only 20 games.