And it's not because the Raiders are a perennially bad football team, either. This interesting little tidbit was tucked into a masterful Dr. Z mailbag column that deals primarily with e-mailers angry about Zimmerman's draft assessments.

• Not exactly a draft question, but Steve of Naperville, Ill., read that if Chris Long might have wound up a Raider, it would have angered his dad, Howie. Why? This is deep, and very little of it has come out. To put it in its simplest form, Al Davis said at one time that he felt that Howie retired a few years too early. The problem is that Howie's body was pretty well shot when he packed it in, and he always resented that statement. Even now, he's looking at extensive corrective surgery to get his shoulder right, his back, and God knows what else. Why is it so bad? Because he spent a whole career facing the meat grinder. He played left end, the power side, in the base defense, and he'd drop down inside at other times. Not once did he ever get to put on a wide rush from the open side, as Greg Townsend did. Howie, coming off the edge at RDE, would have raised all kinds of hell, but he never got the chance to find out.

I had no idea that there was beef between Howie Long and Al Davis, and it's kind of shocking that no one mentioned it in the days leading up to the draft. Leave it to Doc Z to bring it to the people.

I find a great deal of irony in Al Davis criticizing anyone else's retirement decision. I'm sorry, Al, but we can't all follow your example and work well into our 130s.

Al Davis is a pioneer in the league, and deserves a place in NFL history as such, but his retirement as a decision maker is pretty long overdue. His favorite TV show is still Sugarfoot. I think he tried to draft Paul Warfield in the 6th round this year. He's still making all the big draft decisions, despite the fact that the Raiders have won 19 games over the last five years.

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