Art Nouveau
The Shadow
Raiders' new coach: Art Shell
Former player, coach returning to face tall task
Ira Miller, Chronicle Staff Writer
It is back to the future for the Raiders.
Art Shell, who coached the team for nearly six seasons while they were the
Los Angeles Raiders, will be named Oakland's head coach today, the Raiders
said.
The news came Friday after Shell's second meeting with owner Al Davis.
Shell, 59, was one of 10 candidates the Raiders either interviewed or
approached in 38 days since Norv Turner was fired on Jan. 3. His hiring
represents an unusual admission from Davis -- that it was a mistake to fire
Shell in the first place.
As the Raiders' coach from early in the 1989 season through 1994, the team's
last season in L.A. before returning to Oakland, Shell compiled a 56-41
record for a winning percentage of .577. He was the NFL's coach of the year
in 1990, his first complete season, when the Raiders finished 12-4 and
reached the AFC Championship Game.
Under Shell, the Raiders had four winning seasons in five complete years. In
the 11 years since he was fired, they have had only three winning seasons
with a winning percentage of .464.
He returns to a different organization in Oakland than the one he left in
Los Angeles.
The Raiders had won three Super Bowls in 13 seasons before Shell replaced
Mike Shanahan four games into the 1989 season. Now, they have appeared in
only one Super Bowl in 22 years, and they lost that one decisively. And the
team's fan base has been seriously eroded, with more than half the games
blacked out on local television since the return to Oakland.
"I have a lot of great memories there," he told The Chronicle in a 1990
interview. "Those were great games to play in. That's the kind of stuff we
have to get instilled back into our organization."
Now, more than a decade and a half later, it's still the kind of stuff the
Raiders need to get instilled back into their organization. In the 1990
interview, Shell recalled that the Raiders "always had loud fans" in Oakland
who "always were behind us, always." He said that opponents "used to be
afraid; they didn't want to come in and play in that stadium."
In recent years, no one has been afraid to play the Raiders in Oakland, or
anywhere else for that matter. Their 13-35 record over the past three
seasons matches the 49ers for worst in the NFL. They have had five head
coaches since Shell, and only one of them, Jon Gruden, compiled a winning
record.
Shell has not coached since he resigned as offensive line coach of the
Atlanta Falcons following the 2000 season. He has worked in recent years in
the NFL office with the title of senior vice president of football
operations and development. In that role, Shell oversaw game operations, the
NFL Europe League, the officiating department and relations with colleges
and youth football activities.
Further, Shell has battled health problems, primarily diabetes, although his
agent, Danny More, said that he has it under control and has had no
difficulty handling a demanding work and travel schedule in his job with the
league office.
He will need a strong staff of assistant coaches, but typically Davis
dictates the staff to his head coach. The Raiders have several vacancies,
including the key offensive coordinator and offensive line jobs, and the
problem they face is that the pool of potential assistants has shrunk as
other teams have filled out their coaching staffs while Oakland has dawdled.
There also are salary cap issues, although the Raiders typically have done a
good job of solving those every year and there's no reason to believe that
should be a handicap. Bigger problems involve settling on a quarterback,
whether Kerry Collins or someone else, improving an underachieving offensive
line, and further improving a defense that made strides last year, but still
ranked as sixth-worst in the league.
Shell's significant ties to Oakland will make him a popular choice with
Raiders fans.
As a player, Shell was a Hall of Fame offensive tackle with the Raiders,
started on two winning Super Bowl teams, in the 1976 and 1980 seasons, and
was chosen for the Pro Bowl eight times. He played his entire career with
the Raiders and nearly all of it in Oakland -- 14 of 15 seasons. His last
year was 1982, the first year the Raiders played in Los Angeles.
Even then, Shell did not immediately pull up his roots. He kept his house in
the Oakland hills for four years after the L.A. move and, when the team was
close to moving back to Oakland for the 1990 season, five years before it
actually did, he was one of the most enthusiastic backers of the return.
After Turner was fired, the Raiders talked to offensive coordinators Ken
Whisenhunt of Pittsburgh, Jim Fassel of Baltimore and Al Saunders, who moved
from Kansas City to Washington. They also talked to former Tampa Bay
defensive line coach Rod Marinelli, who became head coach at Detroit, and
former St. Louis head coach Mike Martz, who became Marinelli's offensive
coordinator.
In addition, they discussed the job with San Diego receivers coach James
Lofton, Raiders' quarterbacks coach John Shoop and University of Louisville
coach Bobby Petrino, and made an approach to Fresno State coach Pat Hill.
Shell's hiring raises to seven, a record high, the number of African
American coaches in the NFL, along with Tony Dungy of Indianapolis, Herman
Edwards of Kansas City, Romeo Crennel of Cleveland, Lovie Smith of Chicago,
Marvin Lewis of Cincinnati and Dennis Green of Arizona.