INDIANAPOLIS -- Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis said he isn't "stepping in the shoes" of his late father, Al Davis, because the organization has started a new chapter that will bring about several changes over the next few months.
"It's a brand new day," Davis said after receiving the Tank Younger Award from the Fritz Pollard Alliance for his father's commitment to racial and gender equality. "When he came to the Raiders in 1963, there were maybe six coaches, eight coaches, maybe four front-office people. Scouts like Ron Wolf and those guys. They did it on a shoestring.
"The business part really wasn't there. It was all football. Just win. Over the years, it just grew and grew and grew, and I think the size of the league and the size of the organization and the different things you had to deal with, media and all those things, kind of dwarfed the capabilities of the organization. Instead of a clean start with the organization, there's been a lot of plugging holes.
"So at (a) certain point in the near future, after careful evaluation, there will be a more modern structure so to speak."
When asked what would constitute that change, Davis responded, "That's what I'm going to find out."
Davis said new general manager Reggie McKenzie, who handles all football-related issues, has done a good job of putting the structure in place.
"I have the utmost confidence in him to do it," Davis said.
Davis added that "this will be a learning process."
Davis said accepting the award from the Fritz Pollard Alliance -- a group that helps the NFL keep in line with diversity in the workplace, including coaching and front-office staffs -- is something his father wouldn't have done.
"He wouldn't have accepted this award because he hired great people for jobs, and that's just how he felt," he said. "He wasn't doing it for awards. That's the truth."
Davis was among the leaders in the AFL and NFL in hiring African-Americans, Hispanics and women.
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