During a recent interview with ClutchPoints, Oakland Raiders legend Tom Flores talked about his time coaching the iconic franchise and a few things that happened off the field.
The former Raiders coach shared a hilarious story about a 10-year-old Mark Davis causing a little mayhem at the team's practice facility in Oakland. Flores was the team's quarterback at the time and talked about Al Davis' son being a little bit a nuisance for the squad during practices.
Flores started off sharing his thoughts on Al Davis before sharing a funny story about his son and current owner, Mark.
“Everybody thinks he was a renegade and a tough SOB and that stuff, but Al was a very loyal guy to his team, his players, and other great players in the game of football he was very loyal to,” Flores told ClutchPoints. “He would help a lot of players, a lot of families that were in dire need of help, and then he ever helped some of the players that were not Raiders or former Raiders, but he did it quietly and nobody ever heard about it.
“He was just that kind of guy and nobody ever gave him credit for having a heart, but he did have a big heart. He loved his football team and he loved his wife.
“It's kind of fun to watch his son. I even have a little short story about Mark Davis when he was a little kid in training camp and a royal pain in the rear end [laughs] because we would be practicing and I'd go up to the line of scrimmage, I was a quarterback in those days, and where's the ball? And there he is running away with the football [laughs], so what are you going to do? He's the coach's son.
“So he mysteriously one evening he ended up in the locker room taped to a chair and nobody knows how he got there [laughs]. He was about 10 years old. He looks back at all those years when he was growing up in the Raider locker room and training camp. He looks back very fondly.”
After Al passed away back in 2011, Mark has been the owner of the team and has done an impressive job in building the franchise back up following dark period in which the Raiders missed the postseason for over a decade.
Although Davis was obviously a nightmare for Raiders players during his childhood in Oakland, the team has a bright future ahead with him at the helm and Jon Gruden now calling the shots on the field with Derek Carr under center.
For more classic Raiders stories from Flores, check out his book co-written with Matt Fulks: Tales From The Raiders Sideline.
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