Kiffin and his Raiders fell to 1-2 after Sunday's heartbreaking loss to the Buffalo Bills. The entire organization, from Davis to the equipment manager, was obviously upset afterwards.
Kiffin said that if anyone on the Raiders slept well Sunday night, they do not belong on this team.
Despite the gut-wrenching loss, Kiffin had to deal with all the rumors again this week about his employment status.
"Until I'm told by Al Davis that I'm not the head coach here anymore, we're going to keep plugging away the same way we have been. I have not been told by Al Davis that I am not the head coach, so until he tells me directly, we'll keep plugging away. The last thing I'm ever going to do is quit the way that you guys are talking about quitting or even quit behind closed doors," Kiffin told reporters.
Now these supposed "NFL experts" were all backpedaling Monday because their Raider inside sources were apparently wrong. Get this straight -- there is only one source within the Raiders and his name is Al Davis. Davis is the only person in the organization that knows what he is going to do. He is the kind of guy that if he reads on every Web site, print, radio and TV station that he is going to fire his coach, he will not, just because everyone says he will.
On top of that, this team has improved under Kiffin and Davis knows football. He did not win three Super Bowls picking the wrong players and coaches.
It is becoming a zoo -- Monday after Kiffin's press conference, a Raider executive and a local columnist had words and almost came to blows over the coverage of Kiffin and Davis' relationship, as both sides have their own responsibilities. The cloak of secrecy we know as the Raiders is why there is so much mystique with this organization, and Kiffin understands that.
"I'm not about to tell Al how he should be handling the situation. He's been doing this for a long time and has had great success in the league for a long time, so I've got enough things to worry about. I don't need to worry about telling him how he should handle it," Kiffin told reporters.
Kiffin could be gone tomorrow, next week during the bye, or not at all. The best way to find out is to tune into ABC7 News at 6.
