Al Davis appeared on Gil Brandt's SIRIUS NFL radio show today from Napa and not only said this year's Raiders team reminded him of the 1980 team that won Super Bowl XV as a wild card, but compared new quarterback Jason Campbell to Jim Plunkett.
A sampling of the Raiders owner's thoughts, courtesy of SIRIUS...
On last decade: "In the year 2000 we played the Baltimore (Ravens) in the championship game. In the year 2001 we played the New England Patriots in the great 'tuck' game up in Boston in which we had thought we had won the ballgame, but had it taken away from us in the moments by officials that changed the call and took a win away from the Raiders. In 2002 we played in the Super Bowl. So we thought that the decade of the 2000s would be ours. But boy we slipped. We slumped. And now we come into the year 2010 and I really liken this team a great deal to the team of 1980 in which the great Jim Plunkett pulled us out of the doldrums, took us to the Super Bowl as a wild card and we had so many great players who eventually made their way into the Hall of Fame."
On Campbell and Plunkett: "I see this young Jason Campbell as a football player like I saw Jim Plunkett. He has everything. He was 13-0 in college at Auburn. He can throw up the field, he can run, he's big, he's smart. I really predict great things for him. I hope he doesn't let me down. I don't think he will. I think we have a team that's pretty similar. We don't have as many Hall of Fame players as we had on that '80 team, which was the first wild card team to win the Super Bowl, but this team has a lot of potential and a lot of great young players."
Davis on what burns brightest for him: "The will to win will always be here. The fire that burns brightest in me and my family, Carol and Mark, is the will to win. We just want the Raiders to do great. As you know, I'm 81 years old but I still can contribute a great deal. We do a great deal for the team. I think we have our stamp on this team. It's our personnel, it's our picks, it's our want to be great once again, to join the ranks of the elite and get back that number one rating in terms of wins and losses since we've come into the league. And to make the National Football League - which it is - the greatest game that's always played by the greatest players, the greatest coaches, the greatest plays, the greatest games and, of course, the greatest fans that anyone could want."
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