I’ve had a couple of days to reflect on our reaction to the Tuesday press conference given by Raiders owner Al Davis.  I’ve considered the input of readers to our show of support and respect for Davis, who has collected three Vince Lombardi trophies (three more than 15 of 32 NFL franchises combined), and I took to heart the comments of Jason Whitlock of FOXSports.com, whom I hold in very high regard.

Wrote Whitlock:  “I’d like to mention that my favorite blogger, Mike Florio at profootballtalk.com, is mysteriously in the tank for Shallow Al and the way he fired Kiffin.  I can’t figure out what Florio’s angle is on this one.  Are Florio and Shallow Al exchanging e-mails?  I can’t believe my man Florio would play favorites when his reputation is built on blasting agents and reporters who play favorites.”

Here’s my angle, for the benefit of Big Sexy and anyone else who gives a crap (all three of them).  

I don’t have many pet peeves, but for some reason it drives me bonkos that former Raiders exec Mike Lombardi has been using his new voice in the media as a way to take shots at Al Davis without providing the audience full disclosure regarding the basis for Lombardi’s bias. 

As I’ve previously mentioned, Lombardi was one of multiple Raiders employees who work without a contract.  But, when he was fired, he filed a grievance with the Commissioner’s office in search of a contract buyout. 

What’s that, you say?  How can a guy who had no contract get a contract buyout?  He can’t.

The league agreed with the Raiders.

So Lombardi’s opinions about the Raiders should be regarded no differently than those of any disgruntled former employee who filed a frivolous claim against his employer and was thrown out of court.  Those facts infect everything he says and writes about the Raiders, whether he realizes it or not.  Indeed, Lombardi claims (presumably with a straight face) to be unburdened by agendas or pettiness.  Thus, his chronic failure to come clean about the circumstances surrounding his departure from the Raiders hurts his credibility whenever he comments on that franchise.

The issue reached a critical mass for me on Tuesday, when after I pulled up NFL.com to watch the Davis press conference, I was greeted by images of Lombardi, again talking about his experiences with the Raiders without disclosing the nature of his potential bias.  I suspected that, no matter what Davis said or how he said it, Lombardi was going to knock Davis.  So, when the press conference began, I was looking for reasons to prop Davis up. 

I expected a train wreck.  Once Davis started talking, I was blown away.  I expected the 79-year-old owner to talk like every other 79-year-old person I’ve ever known.  Davis was the opposite.  He made clear arguments, and he also came off as truly believing what he was saying.  

In my ever-shrinking day job, I assess the credibility of witnesses while testifying.  And 17 years of experience told me that Davis was being truthful. 

But was it appropriate for Davis to disrupt his team’s 2008 football season by attempting to conjure a basis for stiffing Kiffin out of the balance of his contract?  Hell no.  And I’ve said that, as recently as Monday on SportingNews.com regarding the game of buyout roulette that Davis and Kiffin have been playing:  “Both should be ashamed for allowing the issue to supersede the importance of winning games.  None of this stuff will help the Raiders win a single game; it very well might cause them to lose a few.  It needs to end.  The Raiders should either declare publicly that Kiffin will hold the job the rest of the season, or Kiffin needs to be fired now.”

I lost sight of that bigger picture on Tuesday because I wanted to disagree with Lombardi, whom I suspected would disagree with anything Davis said or did.  Those same feelings prompted me to take a shot at Lombardi (and not at any of the publications for which he works) on Wednesday morning, based on a post-press conference comment Davis made about Lombardi’s role in the trade that sent receiver Randy Moss to New England.  In hindsight, I should have at least considered the possibility that Lombardi wasn’t giving Bill Belichick inside information about Moss in the hopes of helping the Patriots, but that Lombardi was puffing in order to get the Pats to offer up the best possible package for Moss — which ended up being a fourth-round pick for a guy who then caught 23 touchdown passes.

I raise this tonight in large part because Lombardi has opted to take a shot back at me, and because a couple of readers have mentioned it to me.  But I can take the heat.  And I prefer that, if Lombardi or anyone else has a problem with me, the matter be handled out in the open. 

One major benefit of Lombardi’s criticism has been that it’s allowed me to recognize that my own bias regarding Lombardi’s bias regarding Davis influenced my take on the Tuesday press conference.  It shouldn’t have, but it did.

Hopefully, Lombardi will recognize his own bias at some point, too.

Meanwhile, here’s a PFTV segment about the Davis press conference, which we need to wedge in right here because we’ve got nowhere else to put it.  Enjoy.