Like Father, Like Son?

"I just want to be like you. Walk like, talk like, even think like you. I just gotta be like you"-Lecrae (Christian rapper)

Little Boys want to be like their dads. They think their dads are the greatest in the world at everything. Dad is the strongest, funniest and smartest guys in the world. All you want as a son is to have the approval of your father. That approval means everything to the son and in some cases can even validate their lives. So it's interesting that in football there are four franchises that are now being ran by sons and three of those franchises have seen the sons make some interesting moves. Some moves that maybe their fathers wouldn't have approved of. I'll analyze the three sons and their moves:

Mark Davis and the Oakland Raiders

When Al Davis passed away last year, the Raiders lost their face of the franchise. Davis was a football guy. He was an innovator in the AFL as well in the NFL. Although he made some mistakes over the last few years, no one could dispute the impact and legacy he left on the Raiders franchise or professional football for that matter. Controlling interest to the Raiders was left to his son Mark. From all accounts over the past few months Mark is in over his head(read here). Michael Silver does a great job of profiling him in this piece written in January. It started with the firing of Hue Jackson, who became the face of the franchise when Davis passed away. Jackson was the one who pulled the trigger on the Carson Palmer deal. Jackson was the one who rallied the players and got them to play hard and play for Al. I believe that Mark wanted to put his own stamp on the team and try to become the new "Don" in Oakland and that is why he fired Jackson. It doesn't make sense for them to rid the franchise of the first coach who got the team close to the playoffs for the first time since 2002. Mark Davis wants to bring in his own people loyal to him and thinks he knows a lot about football because he was around his dad. We will see if this pays off for him.

Art Rooney II
Realistically the Steelers could have been in the Super Bowl if they would have believed that Tim Tebow could pass the football. But they doubted it and got burned big time. This team has been to two Super Bowls in the last four years. They have a quarterback in Ben Roethleisberger that is an All-Pro and it can be argued a top five passer in the league. However, Art Rooney wants a team and offense that mirrors the blue-collar Steelers in the 70's. What!?!?!? So even though Mike Tomlin said that former Bruce Arians would be back, Rooney II overruled that and Arians was out and in come former Chiefs coach Todd Haley. Rooney likes to brag about his football knowledge coming from his time he spent lifting weights with the older Steelers teams. If that's the case my knowledge came from working out with NAIA players over the summer , so now I'm qualified on how to tell a team what's best for their offense too. If I remember correctly, the problem with the Steelers was not their offense but it was with their defense. They had a ton of injuries and still managed to get to the playoffs. Ben's comfortable with the offense they had, as well as all of their starters on that side of the ball. It will be interesting to see if this dynamic works out. Art Sr. and Dan never meddled in the decisions of the coaches and players. It just wasn't their way and it wasn't the Steelers way. Looks like times have changed.

Jim Irsay
Now Irsay has won a Super Bowl and up until recently you never heard from him. But he is a guy who is starting to seem more like Jerry Jones or Mark Cuban. He has been using Twitter to interact more with fans and media alike. Issuing statements about the team and more important about Peyton Manning. What Irsay did do to turn the franchise around is hire Bill Polian, who then drafted Manning. But instead of rebuilding again with Polian (you can watch an interview with Polian), Irsay turned around and fired him, while Polian was in a meeting with Manning. Also, if he fired Polian and his son, Irsay should have fired the entire coaching staff. Instead he brought in a new GM and that guy fired the coaching staff. Of course Peyton Manning would feel uneasy by seeing all the change and disruption that was occurring around him. Ill give Irsay credit he didn't move the team out of town like his father did, but the rest of his moves lately have been really odd.

All of these gentlemen could totally prove me and the rest of the world wrong with their moves. They are starting legacies for their teams and franchises. Taking different paths than the ones blazed by their father's.