Raiders Fire Head Coach Lane Kiffin

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The Oakland Raiders fired head coach Lane Kiffin today. That makes two head coach firings in two days as St. Louis Rams head coach Scott Linehan was dismissed from his job yesterday. This marks the first time since at least 1970 that two head coaches have been fired before the fifth game of the season.

Coach Kiffin’s dismissal had been seriously rumored since the Raiders lost their season-opener to Denver. And unlike coach Linehan’s firing yesterday, this one wasn’t a friendly farewell. Raiders owner Al Davis not only brought the anticipated announcement in a presser today, but he went so far as to call coach Kiffin a “flat-out liar”, a “disgrace to the organization” and also questioned his coaching and personnel decisions among other things. He repeatedly said he was firing coach Kiffin “for cause” and even read from a warning letter he had sent to coach Kiffin before the team’s win against Kansas City a couple weeks ago.

Yes, Mr. Davis opened his vault and dumped it all over Lane Kiffin. He went on and on for what seemed like an eternity, hurling negative comments at coach Kiffin all the while. I can’t possibly pull all the wild quotes from this mess.

Offensive line coach Tom Cable will now take over the team with a bye week at his disposal. But he will be the fifth coach to lead the Raiders since Jon Gruden left after the 2001 season. Which makes me think this high turnover job is no longer one any outside coach in his right mind would want. The Oakland Raiders head coaching position has been a veritable revolving door for the past six seasons and the results aren’t pretty — an NFL-worst 20-64 record during that time. And Al Davis is ultimately responsible. He hired coach Kiffin and he took responsibility for making what he called “the wrong decision.” You just wonder how many more wrong decisions he’ll make before the Raiders can turn things around and “Just win, baby.”

Source: ESPN.com, Photo: Newscom