After growing up in the football business, Raiders owner Mark Davis still has a healthy understanding of what he doesn't know.
And Raiders fans should be thankful.
While some owners meddle unknowingly in team affairs, Davis has brought in consultants like John Madden to have football-specific conversations with head-coaching candidates.
In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, Davis said that he talked to Mike Shanahan about the "macro theory" while Madden talked scheme.
"I know my limitations, and I'm not an X's and O's guy," Davis said. "So I need somebody who knows X's and O's to sit with me and ask all the football questions."
Davis also revealed that he had interest in Scot McCloughan, the newly hired general manager in Washington. He did not, however, reach out to Mike Holmgren this time around.
Most interesting, though, was hearing him expand on the Shanahan interview. The two-time Super Bowl-winning coach got his start with Davis' father, Al, and an extremely fractured relationship followed.
Shanahan was out after less than two seasons.
Now?
"There's somebody out there in the media that really thinks this is just a terrible thing or it's me being totally disrespectful to my dad and everything like that," Davis said. "Listen, this is something I learned from my dad -- you talk to everybody because you can learn from everybody.
"Even if you're not going to hire somebody, if it turns out that way, you can learn from that person, if he's somebody who has things you can learn from. I've got a quarterback here -- if I didn't go listen to a guy that's got one of the best offensive minds in football and who has looked at all 16 of our games and can critique our quarterback for us ... why wouldn't I? Of course I'm going to do that."
If Davis is indeed doing this to learn, there's nothing disrespectful about it. The Raiders might actually get this hire right.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast previews the Divisional Round and ranks the eight remaining quarterbacks in the playoffs. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.
