Al Davis' Tuesday News and Views

The world lost a professional football legend over the weekend in Al Davis. Davis, of course, was the brash, controversial, and highly-criticized owner of the Oakland Raiders from 1970 until his passing on Saturday. He had been with the Raiders organization for over 50 years. It all began in 1962 when Raiders general partner F. Wayne Valley hired Davis as head coach and general manager. Little did Valley know that the 33 year-old coach (the youngest to ever hold a head coaching position at that time) would one day push him aside to take over the organization. It took a vicious move by Davis to practically steal the team away from Valley in 1972, but it was really an early example of Davis' brilliance. He'd spend the next 39 years as the boss of the silver of the black and one of the most notable team owners in all of sports. The man had full control of the Oakland Raiders and he wasn't afraid to abuse it.  He was a true G. Rest In Peace, Al Davis... Father, Husband, Coach, Owner, Commissioner, Windbreaker Supporter, and Original Gangster. To the news and views... -- Monday was a day of reflection on UK's atrocious football performance against South Carolina over the weekend. Almost all of you have made it very clear that you don't want to read anything else about the football team, so we won't delve too far into it right now, but it's worth pointing out that this is arguably the lowest point in Kentucky football in a long time. Everyone has given up on Joker and the #HireMikeLeach campaign is picking up steam. It really is hard to grasp how unbelievably bad this team is. No one expects a UK football team to win every game, but the losses they're taking are flat out embarrassing. The Cats have the second worse offense in all of college football and Kentucky has been outscored 137-20 in its last three games. Vomit. -- Kentucky has a bye this weekend before welcoming Jacksonville State into Commonwealth Stadium on October 22. Kickoff for that game is scheduled for noon and it will be televised on ESPN U. It will likely be the worst crowd at Commonwealth in the last 15 years. With Keeneland going strong that weekend in Lexington and the way the fan base has completely lost interest this season, it's not unrealistic to think that the attendance could be as low as 40,000. Only 58,000 showed up for the home opener against Central Michigan this season and things have gotten a lot uglier since then. -- 4 days until Big Blue Madness. I can't actually see it, but I know you're smiling right now. -- Tickets for the UK Villains game went on sale Monday morning and they didn't go as fast as promoters had hoped. Several tickets are still available for the game on Ticketmaster.com. I'm pretty surprised by the poor ticket sales for this game, considering the amount of awesomeness that'll be going on in Rupp Arena that night. King Rex returns, Enes debuts, and Christian Laettner makes his first appearance in front of UK fans since 1992. Am I the only one who thinks it could be the best Monday night ever? Come on, people. Let's fill the place. -- Former WKU basketball star and NBA legend Ty Rogers is working on a "Big Red vs. Big Blue" exhibition game at Western Kentucky's Diddle Arena in Bowling Green. The game is scheduled to take place on October 25th at 7:00 p.m., one day after the UK Villains game in Lexington. Rogers told the WKU Herald that he saw the games going on around UK and thought there's no reason why the same thing couldn't happen in Bowling Green. Former Hilltoppers Courtney Lee and Jeremy Evans are already confirmed for the Big Red roster. Rogers is in talks with several former Wildcats for the Big Blue roster. We'll have more information on KSR as it comes available. The idea just came up four days ago. -- The Big Blue All Stars beat Georgetown College 122-105 for their third consecutive victory on the tour across the state. Kenneth Faried has been an absolute beast on this tour and he scored another 32 on Monday night. Jodie Meeks was second best with 30. Union College is up next for the former Cats at Pulaski Southwestern High School. -- Here is a look at the Kentucky PE of the Nike LeBron 9, courtesy of our friends at Oneness 287: The shoes will be available in very limited numbers this Saturday at 12:01 AM at Oneness. Get to the stoop early - like camp out early - if you're planning to buy a pair. They'll cost you a cool $180 but the look on your friends' faces when they seeing you wear them is priceless. -- NBA Commissioner David Stern cancelled the first two weeks of the NBA season after players and owners failed to agree on a new labor deal and end the lockout in the meetings over the weekend.  One NBA GM told Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski that the best case scenario at this point would be a 50 game season, but losing the entire season is a strong possibility. Another GM sent Wojo a text saying, "Now it gets ugly. God help us." Owners locked the players out on July 1 and now it'll last through November 14 at the very least.  The lockout is the worst thing to happen to NBA bank accounts since child support. -- Our UK football contributor, Aaron Cordero, caught up with UK quarterback commit Patrick Towles on Monday evening. Towles told Cordero that he speaks to the UK staff at least once a week and offensive coordinator Randy Sanders would be at his game this week. "I'm 110% committed to Joker Phillips and the University of Kentucky," said Towles. Towels' Highlands team is 6-0 this season. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound passer is rarely seeing the field in the second half because his team is blowing out opponents. -- We touched on this in Monday's afternoon notes but it deserves a little more love on the site. Mark Krebs just finished up shooting a Warner Bros. movie starring Kevin Durant. It's about a boy who trades basketball skills with Durant, and Mark plays one of KD's teammates in a non-speaking but soon-to-be Oscar-nominated role. The KSR gang has decided that we're going to the red carpet premier when the movie is released. And if there isn't a red carpet, we'll make one. That's all for now, my friends. Check back in a few hours when BTI says something you'll disagree with. Go Cats.