The Raiders are dangerously close to NFL relevance again | Dave Caldwell

After years of underachievement, the team Al Davis built may be good enough to stray into love-to-hate' territory once again

Al Davis died 10 years ago next week, and his beloved NFL team now plays its home games a nine-hour drive from Oakland. But the Raiders are not ready to move away from his go-deep, Just Win, Baby" legacy - and they may not ever be. Ten years on, they still wear tiny black shield-shaped stickers with AL on those lustrous silver helmets.

His 66-year-old son, Mark, who has owned and run the Raiders since his father's death, angered the legion of loyal fans in Oakland by bolting to Las Vegas before last season, even though he said he tried to get a new stadium built in Oakland even after the city jacked up the rent on the old one.