Renegade Davis Can Spare NFL Embarrassment

Al Davis, of all people, has a chance to be the NFL's savior this offseason.

Davis, the renegade owner of the Oakland Raiders who has opposed the league in litigation so often that it is a virtual hobby for him, can be the one to spare his fellow team owners and NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue from further embarrassment on the diversity-hiring issue.

All he has to do is hire Art Shell as his coach.

And his alternatives are rapidly dwindling.

The Raiders lost a top coaching candidate on Thursday when Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt withdrew his name from consideration, a day after interviewing with Davis in the Bay Area. The Steelers' run to a Super Bowl title has made Whisenhunt a coveted head-coaching candidate league-wide, and he apparently believes he can wait a year and get a more attractive job that doesn't entail having to negotiate a contract with Davis or working for him.

The Raiders reportedly made another push late Wednesday to hire a college coach, Bobby Petrino of Louisville, but he declined. Petrino apparently has been the Raiders' preferred candidate for several weeks, but they've been unable to convince him to make the jump to the NFL.

That makes it five Raiders' candidates who have either taken other jobs or withdrawn from consideration. Al Saunders became the offensive coordinator of the Washington Redskins. Rod Marinelli took the Detroit Lions' head-coaching job, and Mike Martz became Marinelli's offensive coordinator.

That leaves three still-available candidates who have interviewed with the Raiders -- Shell, San Diego Chargers wide receivers coach James Lofton and Oakland's quarterbacks coach, John Shoop. It's possible that the Raiders will make a run at Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Jim Fassel, the former head coach of the New York Giants.

But it appeared when Shell interviewed with Davis last Friday that he had become the fall-back choice. The Hall of Fame offensive tackle for the Raiders coached the team between 1989 and '94, compiling a regular-season record of 54-38. He reached the playoffs three times in five full seasons as the club's coach and guided it to an AFC title game. Davis has expressed regret about firing Shell, and the once-proud franchise has had only three winning seasons since Shell's exit. The Raiders have a combined record of 13-35 over the past three seasons, including 9-23 in two seasons under the recently fired Norv Turner. Shell always was eager to get another head-coaching chance but couldn't land a job, and he now works for the league office.

The Raiders are the last NFL team with a head-coaching vacancy. Either Shell or Lofton, if he's hired by Davis, would be only the second black coach among the 10 new head coaches appointed league-wide this offseason. The lack of diversity among the nine coaches hired previously has drawn criticism from Tagliabue, NFL Players Association chief Gene Upshaw and the leaders of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, the group formed to promote minority hiring at all levels of the league. The hiring of Shell or Lofton by the Raiders would give the NFL an all-time-high seven black head coaches next season, and would make this the fourth straight hiring cycle since the league implemented its minority interviewing rule that the number of black coaches increased. The rule -- known as the "Rooney Rule" for Steelers owner Dan Rooney, the head of the NFL's workplace diversity committee -- requires each club with a head-coaching vacancy to interview at least one minority candidate.

But the rule imposes no hiring requirements on the teams. Tagliabue, Upshaw and John Wooten, the chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, said in recent weeks they were confident that all the clubs with coaching vacancies had followed the Rooney Rule properly, but they were puzzled about why more minority coaches hadn't been hired. The leaders of the Fritz Pollard Alliance were particularly perplexed about the hirings of 34-year-old New England Patriots defensive coordinator Eric Mangini by the New York Jets and San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy, who oversaw the league's last-ranked offense this season, by the Green Bay Packers.

But they remained optimistic because they'd noticed a trend the past three years of the last head coach who was hired being a minority coach. If that trend continues this offseason, many people around the league will breathe a sigh of satisfaction and relief.

Sherman to Texans

Former Packers coach Mike Sherman appears likely to accept the Houston Texans' offer to become their assistant head coach and offensive line coach . . . .

The word that's spreading quickly around the league is that the Jets are likely to use their franchise-player tag to keep defensive end John Abraham off the unrestricted free agent market and then try to trade him . . . .

The Chargers have opened negotiations with agent Tom Condon on a long-term contract for quarterback Drew Brees, hoping to avoid using the franchise-player tag on him for a second year in a row . . . .

The Seattle Seahawks have opened conversations with tailback Shaun Alexander about a contract extension. Alexander, the league's most valuable player this season, is eligible for unrestricted free agency next month and the Seahawks have promised not to use the franchise-player tag on him again.

Texans Keeping Carr

The Houston Chronicle reported today that the Texans have exercised an option in quarterback David Carr's contract that extends the deal through the 2008 season. Carr receives an $8 million option bonus and salaries of $5.25 million next season, $5.5 million in 2007 and $6 million in 2008.

The move is significant as the Texans debate whether to select USC tailback Reggie Bush or Texas quarterback Vince Young with the top overall choice in the draft in April. Retaining Carr seems to indicate the Texans are likely to pick Bush, although it's possible they could take Young and trade Carr at some point.