It’s been nearly a yr since we misplaced the brilliant smile of a really good man and a real Raider warrior: security Mike Davis. He performed in 107 regular-season video games, with 83 begins, for the Raiders. His final yr with the Raiders was in 1986. He performed for one further yr with San Diego earlier than retiring. However his was a bittersweet life: whereas he reveled in his teammates’ accolades and the candy scent of success that got here with being a two-time Tremendous Bowl champion, a few of the sounds eluded him.
In 1977, Davis was drafted by the Oakland Raiders within the second spherical, out of the College of Colorado (the thirty-fifth total decide). Davis was coming right into a secondary that was already famed, if not feared: George Atkinson, Skip Thomas, Jack Tatum, and Previous Man Willie Brown shaped the famend group generally known as the “Soul Patrol,” so Davis had the advantage of studying from a few of the finest at their craft. For the primary yr of his profession, Davis simply sat and watched—and waited for his probability.
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The Beginnings Of Mike Davis’s Profession
In truth, Davis really made his first official begin in 1978, accumulating one interception within the one sport that he began. Over the course of his profession, he had a complete of 11 interceptions and recovered 12 fumbles; he additionally had 11 sacks, together with a major one in Tremendous Bowl 18 towards Washington. Nonetheless, a very powerful play of his profession, undoubtedly, is the one for which he’s most well-known: the interception through the 1980 AFC Divisional playoff towards the Cleveland Browns, on a play generally known as “Pink Proper, 88”.
Transferring towards the top of the sport, and with the Browns trailing 14-12, kicker Don Cockroft awaited the decision on the sidelines for Cleveland to come back in and kick the game-winning discipline objective. However he had already missed two further factors that day within the swirling wind, and a botched snap on a discipline objective try had nearly eliminated Browns’ head coach Sam Rutigliano’s confidence within the kicking sport.
On Second Down…
On a second down, from the Raiders 14, the coach instructed his quarterback, Brian Sipe, to intention for his tight finish, Ozzie Newsome, angling towards the again nook of the top zone; he informed his quarterback that if there was nothing open, to easily throw the ball away and the Browns would then go for the sector objective. On the play, Sipe lofted the ball, which fluttered within the gusty wind, permitting Davis to make a bead on the ball, reduce the route, and collect within the cross, regardless of Newsome’s futile makes an attempt to stop the interception. Davis trapped the ball towards his shoulder pads and clutched the ball like he had by no means clung to at least one in his complete life.
His teammates, Kenny King, Artwork Shell, and Gene Upshaw had been all incredulous that this man – the man who allegedly had the worst fingers on the group (in response to them) – had singlehandedly produced the miracle that allowed the Raiders to proceed their 1980 run to the NFL championship.
Davis was an integral a part of that Oakland championship group. He then bought to “go residence” when the Raiders moved to Los Angeles in 1982, and helped the Raiders carry the primary skilled soccer championship to the town the place he grew up.
Davis’s Submit-Profession Life
Even after his profession resulted in 1987, Mike continued to be a loyal and proud member of the Raider alumni, however on the similar time, the results of his profession had taken a toll on his physique. His listening to had began to say no, and he finally went utterly deaf. For 3 years, his world was a silent one, and he turned withdrawn and remoted. After a number of surgical procedures and a particular implant on the base of his cranium, listening to was restored and Mike was in a position to take pleasure in his life once more and unfold the enjoyment of the smile that he had introduced all through his taking part in profession, however that had light together with the sounds of every little thing round him.
Mike indicated that, regardless of the travails he skilled by the lack of his listening to, he was proud that he performed the sport the way in which that he did and that the sacrifices he had made on the sector had been all value it. He as soon as commented, throughout an ESPN interview, “I simply wished to play as laborious as I may and do the very best that I may.” He definitely did that, and he clutched his household as tightly as he clutched that soccer on that legendary January day in 1981.
The Day We Misplaced A Legend
When he handed away on April 25, 2021, on the age of 65, former teammate and Corridor of Famer Artwork Shell commented that Mike was “a frontrunner in our locker room early on.” As an individual, you couldn’t discover anyone higher. He was a loving husband to his spouse and their two sons.
“Pink Proper, 88” will proceed to reside within the minds and hearts of Raiders followers all over the place; not only for the miraculous play made by an unlikely defensive again who occurred to be on the proper place on the proper time, however by a pleasant man named Mike Davis, who all the time appreciated the sounds of victory – each on and off the sector. We proceed to have a good time the profession and lifetime of No. 36, security Mike Davis.
*High Picture: Bettmann Archive/Getty Photographs