PALM BEACH, Fla., March 30 -- Norv Turner has taken the high road since Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder fired him 13 games into the 2000 season, even if the team was 7-6 at the time and still not eliminated from playoff contention. Turner never groused publicly about his dismissal -- not then, not during his next three years as an assistant in San Diego and Miami, and not now as the new coach of the Oakland Raiders.
But Tuesday he did talk about the advantage for any coach in working for an owner such as Al Davis, a lifetime football man, a former coach and team executive and a Hall of Famer despite his constant legal battles with the NFL. Turner never mentioned Snyder by name, but he didn't have to.
"Being with [Raiders owner] Al Davis, it's all football," says new Oakland coach Norv Turner.
(Steve Mitchell - AP)
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"Being with Al Davis, it's all football," Turner said Tuesday during a breakfast interview session at the league meetings. "You're not fooling around with a lot of things that are not about football. Mr. Davis obviously has an understanding, a background and a history of the game. When you sit down and talk to him about something, he knows football.
"We can talk about games, we can talk about players, we can talk about plays. It's totally different from my past experience in terms of sitting down and talking to someone who has no football background and then wants to have an opinion."
Since Davis hired him Jan. 26 to succeed Bill Callahan, Turner said his owner has been supportive in every area. He was allowed to pick his coaching staff, and along with personnel director Mike Lombardi, the three men have mostly been on the same page as they seek to rebuild a team that went 4-12 last season after going to the Super Bowl the season before.
Turner, 51, grew up in Martinez, Calif., in the Bay Area and remembers going to Raiders games. Just as significantly, he has always been an advocate of the Raiders' vertical deep-pass philosophy, mixed with a strong running game and stout defense.
He knows the Raiders imploded last year. Callahan, now head coach at Nebraska, had taken Oakland to the Super Bowl in 2002 but lost control of his team, calling it "the dumbest team in America" after one penalty-filled game.
Turner knows there is an impression that he has inherited the oldest team in the NFL, including starting wide receivers Jerry Rice (41) and Tim Brown (37) and 38-year-old quarterback Rich Gannon, coming back from shoulder surgery that knocked him out for most of the 2003 season.
So far, the Raiders have added high-profile free agents in defensive tackles Ted Washington (36) and Warren Sapp (31), but Turner would prefer to emphasize the 27 players who are 25 and younger.
The Raiders also have the No. 2 overall pick in the college draft, and while there has been talk they could take a quarterback -- either Eli Manning of Mississippi or Ben Roethlisberger of Miami (Ohio) -- and groom him as Gannon's eventual replacement, the Raiders also could trade down for multiple picks and add more youth.
Turner believes Gannon can still play, and that Rice and Brown can be effective, especially with deep threat Jerry Porter returning after missing most of 2003 with an injury. Washington was vital in helping the New England Patriots stop the run last season, and Turner plans to slightly cut down on Sapp's snaps to make him more effective as a playmaker. Their presence can only help a defense 32nd against the run in 2003.
An injury-plagued offensive line has been bolstered by the addition of free agent guard Ron Stone. The Raiders lost running back Charlie Garner to free agency but are said to still be interested in trading for Cincinnati's Corey Dillon, who has made no secret of his desire to leave the Bengals.
Turner also would like to think he's a better coach after seven years with Washington, where he had a reputation as an excellent game-planner and play-caller but often was criticized for not being tough enough with his players. Still, he likes to point out that when he arrived in Washington the Redskins were $17 million over the salary cap, and his team had winning seasons in four of his last five years. Overall, he was 49-59-1, and 1-1 in the playoffs.
"The biggest thing is when Jack Kent Cooke passed away, the organization went through some amazing changes," he said. "We held that thing together when it could have been a disaster. We were competitive and we had winning seasons. And when we got Brad Johnson [in 1999], we were a playoff team."
The Redskins started 6-2 in 2000 when Johnson got hurt. Snyder had also signed much-traveled Jeff George that season, against Turner's wishes, and when the team fell to 7-6, Turner was replaced by interim coach Terry Robiskie, who finished the season 1-2.
Turner indicated several times today that he preferred not to dwell on his time in Washington, saying, "we've talked about it more in the last 40 minutes than I've talked about it in four years. It doesn't really matter now."
He also believes that Joe Gibbs -- the fourth coach Snyder has hired in four years -- will get the Redskins back to respectability.
"I've been a big Joe Gibbs fan for a lot of years," Turner said. "I used to watch him when he was in San Diego with Ernie Zampese. He is a great coach. The things he always believed in still work. He's going to have great success there, there's no question about that."
