Willie Brown Retires

By MikeBullock  |   Thursday, January 14, 2010  |  Comments( 4 )

Oakland Raiders
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In 1967, the Oakland Raiders completed a trade with the Denver Broncos for a man who would become one of the greatest players in franchise history. Alongside names such as Lester Hayes, Jack Tatum and Mike Haynes, Willie Brown set the standard for play in the Oakland secondary over the next 12 seasons on his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Brown’s playing career ended with 54 interceptions, including the magic one for 75 yards and six points in Superbowl XI and his coaching career began soon thereafter. Brown has since become a fixture in Oakland, coaching players such as Charles Woodson, Rod Woodson, Eric Allen, the late Eric Turner, Ray Buchanan and Nnamdi Asomugha. While the secondary hasn’t been stellar over the last few years that may very well be more a case of poor personnel choices than poor coaching.
For many years, another Raider Hall of Fame player turned coach, Fred Biletnikoff, coached alongside Brown, tutoring young Raider wide receivers. When the day came that Biletnikoff said farewell to the Raiders coaching job, many applauded the move as a chance for the Raider receiving corps to rise above the mediocrity it possessed when you looked past players such as Tim Brown and Jerry Rice. However, the exact opposite happened and since the man who was one of Oakland’s all time greatest receivers stepped aside, the receiving corps has descended into a chaotic mess.

Odds are the very same thing will happen in the defensive backfield now that Brown has hung up his whistle and clipboard. While there are a multitude of capable defensive backs coaches out there, the pool dwindles rapidly when you remove the ones unwilling to work under Al Davis. It dwindles even further when you remove the ones Davis is willing to hire, and drops down near zero when you add in the defining factors of being able to work within Oakland’s bizarre system.

Despite all that, Willie Brown has more than earned his place in Raider lore. Not only is it time to honor a great man whose career, or at least one facet of it, has come to a close, it’s time to look to the future. It’s hard to know what that future will bring, but based on the context of Oakland’s recent coaching carousel, it’s even harder to remain optimistic. Brown will be missed immediately, and quite possibly for a very long time.

Maybe Davis can convince Tatum or Hayes to take his place.

In other news, rumors abound that Steve “Mooch” Mariucci could replace Tom Cable as the Raider’s head coach. While Mooch certainly doesn’t have a perfect track record as a head man, he has certainly fared better than Cable, Kiffin and a few of the other Raider head coaches of the last two decades. Mariucci was also instrumental in the development of future Hall of Fame players like Brett Favre, a career note that is certainly not lost on Al Davis.

Speaking of Kiffin, fans of Pac 10 teams not playing in LA can rejoice now that the perennial powerhouse USC should become easy pickings for divisional opponents. Since Kiffin’s win-loss record is embarrassing when compared to that of outgoing coach, Pete Carroll, you can expect the rest of the Pac 10 to take it to USC every chance they get, as payback of sorts for years of defeats delivered by Carroll’s squads. Why anyone would give Lane Kiffin a head coaching job is a mystery, especially a school with the long standing tradition of excellence. One thing is for sure, if Kiffin continues his antics that played out in Tennessee, you can expect him to become the sports equivalent of the national joke in Los Angeles, where replacing legends brings scrutiny, and odd behavior brings unwanted publicity and unceasing mockery.
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