Hue Jackson says he would have remained Oakland Raiders’ coach had Al Davis been alive – NFL news Update
Former coach of Oakland Raiders, Hue Jackson has said that he would have remained the coach had owner Al Davis still been alive.
He admitted that he was at a mistake after he hit out hard on the players after the loss to San Diego Chargers was a mistake.
The new general manager of the team, Reggie McKenzie wasted no time in firing him on the very first day of his job. McKenzie had said that changes were needed in the team and it was time for a new “era”. McKenzie did not refrain from making his intentions
public that he wanted his own man in.
That is exactly what a bitter Jackson said after leaving the team.
Jackson while talking to ESPN Radio said that blasting his team after the loss to San Diego Chargers and hitting out on his players at a post game press conference in week 17 went beyond the line.
"I think probably the emotions were still pretty raw after talking to the team. I kind of went in there and said some things that I was saying to the team that maybe didn't need to be said outside the locker room” he said.
Jackson said that he had learnt a hard lesson from that episode.
"So lesson learned by me. I know what I said, I know what I meant. I don't think I meant it the way that everybody took it."
The heat had fallen on Jackson after the team failed to reach the playoffs ending up at 8-8 at the end of the season.
Even though Jackson had been faced with a long list of injuries to key players that saw their performance drastically fall, the new general manager singled him out by sacking him as soon as he took over the charge of the team.
The Raiders had lost their key running back Darren McFadden and Quarterback Jason Campbell along with many other important players to injuries and there was little that Jackson could do in this regard.
The defence had fared poorly throughout the season and the team had committed a record number of penalties this season.
Recently, after Davis died, it had been Jackson who had been offering his role to dispense the responsibilities in the absence of a general manager, so the decision to fire him came out as a complete shock to him.
Jackson denied being power hungry and said that people who talked of him aspiring to be the GM were wrong.
Jackson pinned the blame of his ouster on Raider’s owner Mark Davis, saying that had his father been alive, he would have remained the head coach.
Mark Davis had taken over as the team’s owner after his father died in October.
However, Jackson hoped for success of the Raiders in future, adding that the new general manager will prove to be good.
You can view live coverage and analysis of the Super Bowl XLVI by http://answers.bettor.com/Users/Robert-California-u3050 on
Sunday, 11:00pm, GMT
Tags: