It’s tempting to think that most sports problems would go away if only the gazillionaire owners would act more like fans. If they bled team colors like we do, they’d never let beloved free agents walk or threaten to leave town unless they got new stadiums…right?

Well, no. Being a fanatic and an owner means never having to admit you’ve gone too far. Just ask Al Davis, whose Raiders are one of only three franchises to finish in the bottom 10 (out of 122 teams) in our Standings each of the past three years. (The others are the Knicks, who finished last in 2008, and the Lions, last in 2007.) Since losing Super Bowl XXXVII, Oakland has churned through head coaches (four) and QBs (nine) on its way to an embarrassing 2472 record, wrecking one of the great brands in the history of sports. But admit it: If you got your hands on a pro team, you’d probably run it the way Davis does. Drafting big-name superathletes: Darren McFadden! JaMarcus Russell! Throwing money at key players: $45 million to Nnamdi Asomugha! Publicly savoring every victory, while stewing over defeats for years. That’s no exaggeration: After firing Lane Kiffin last fall, Davis talked with reporters about the Raiders’ recent history and concluded, “The Tuck Game was the undoing of a lot of things.” He was referring to a game in 2002.

Davis’ real problem is one of vintage. Since resettling the Raiders in Oakland in 1995, he’s failed to address new-era questions that old-time owners didn’t have to worry about. Who controls ticket sales? (The Raiders surrendered theirs for years to Alameda County.) Are you maxing out on luxury suites? (Not even close.) Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder have figured out how to snag dozens of millions in unshared revenues, and they’ve become the larger-than-life personalities Davis used to be. So, they’ve had the cash to make up for personnel mistakes. And Davis hasn’t.

There is hope: Davis, 80, now has three minority partners with Wall Street backgrounds. So maybe they’ll get him to act on the lesson all Raiders fans have learned the hard way: It takes professionalism as well as passion to just win, baby.

Peter Keating is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine.  – http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4297594

After missing out on pretty much his entire rookie season, JaMarcus Russell finally got the chance to get an entire training camp and off-season under his belt before starting last season. Didn’t work out too well as he was arguably the worst starting quarterback in the entire league a season ago. While fans and even coaches have began to lose confidence in the young quarterback, Raiders owner Al Davis hasn’t and will not let Oakland bench his apparent prized possession. In the 2008-09 season, Russell only completeed 53% of his passes while throwing 13 TD’s and 8 interceptions. On top of that, he was sacked 31 times. What did the Oakland Raiders do to help out their struggling young quarterback? They drafted … Darrius Heyward-Bey, over Michael Crabtree. I’m sure the scouts have done their job and Heyward-Bey will be a fine pro, but passing on Crabtree drew all kinds of criticism from the press.

Showing Russell that the organization has a ton of confidence in him, the Raiders then signed Jeff Garcia, who has hopes and admirations to be the starting quarterback by opening day. I’m sure most coaches would want it that way, but there is only one person who doesn’t and his opinion matters the most. Al Davis does not want to see Russell benched, but if starts off the season struggling, how long will it be before the rug is pulled from under him and Garcia is put out the field?