Tom Cable fighting $120K worth of fines
While ex-Oakland Raiders Head Coach Tom Cable was trying to get the team to play better games and make a playoff appearance, owner Al Davis was fining Cable $20,000 from each of his pay checks. Now, the fines total $120,000.
In response, Cable made a complaint against the owner with the National Football League (NFL), becoming the fourth Raiders coach to have a dispute with the owner over finances.
League commissioner Roger Goodell will now hire an arbitrator to whom both Davis and Cable will have to give documents and submit witnesses so that he can make a final decision. The NFL is doing what it can to find out exactly what the fines are, and for
what reasons they were imposed.
The financial turmoil between Cable and the team shows just how much Davis’ and Cable’s relationship has fallen apart, and exactly why the owner decided to let Cable go instead of opting to keep him for two more years. Cable’s sacking led to many players
becoming visually upset.
However, players did not know that while they were celebrating their best performance since winning the American Football Conference (AFC) division in 2002, the owner and head coach of the team had a cold shoulder turned to each other.
Davis was upset because the team had skipped two days of organised team activities last summer. They also lost a week’s worth of practices in the off-season in 2007, when then Head Coach Lane Kiffin upped the intensity of his practice sessions.
Kiffin also filed a grievance against the team after being fired, feeling that he was owed money. However, the arbitrator said that his claim was without grounds. Davis has a long line of financial problems with his head coach going all the way back to Mike
Shanahan. The league has had to settle the disputes with four od Davis’ last five head coaches.
It’s not odd for coaches and teams to have financial problems amongst each other; except they usually don’t arise until coaches are sacked.
Davis is currently looking for a head coach with Raiders offensive coordinator Hue Jackson considered the favourite for the post. If Jackson takes the job, the offensive coordinator post will be filled by Al Saunders, for whom Davis has long had a soft spot.
Cable is also job hunting with his agent, Don Yee, saying that other teams were interested in him ever since he was fired.
Cable debuted in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons as offensive line coach back in 2006. After head coach Jim Mora was fired, he moved to the Raiders in the same position under Kiffin. After Kiffin was fired, Cable became the new head coach. He was then fired
on January 4, 2011.
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