"I don't want to be the most respected team in the league. I want to be the most feared." - Al Davis

Al Davis, who died yesterday at 82, was linked with one team and one team only: the Raiders. From Oakland to Los Angeles and back to Oakland, Davis was the driving force behind the menacing teams that wore the silver and black.

Fans relatively new to the NFL may only recognize the modern-day Davis, an older guy with a gravelly voice, who more often than not wore a tacky satin jacket and some oversized jewelry. He also copped some flack for his recent poor personnel decisions, including 2007's No.1 draft pick Jamarcus Russell, who's no longer in the league.

But Davis, who started with the Raiders as coach and general manager in 1963, was among the most influential individuals in the history of the NFL. A private - some would say paranoid - control freak, Davis coined terms like "Commitment to Excellence" and "Just Win, Baby" for his beloved Raiders' organisation.

His teams went to five Super Bowls and won three. The rosters were full of future Hall of Famers - Marcus Allen, Howie Long, Jim Otto, Gene Upshaw, Fred Biletnikoff among them - and his favourite head coach, John Madden, has become one of the NFL's most enduring personalities.

Davis was responsible for the Raiders' mean, menacing reputation. He picked the silver and black colours and the pirate logo and created an "us against them" mentality. Davis emphasized this outlaw atmosphere by recruiting unwanted players (Daryle Lamonica, George Blanda) and others with questionable reputations (Ken Stabler, John Matuszak).

Davis was a pioneer. The Raiders were the first team to hire an African-American head coach (Art Shell), a Latino head coach (Tom Flores) and a female chief executive (Amy Trask).

Perhaps more importantly, Davis was partly responsible for the NFL-AFL merger in 1966, a groundbreaking move that made the NFL what it is today. The AFL - with Davis leading the charge - was a rival league that signed some high-profile players to huge contracts, and NFL owners feared that a bidding war would ruin their league. Eventually this led to the merger, which brought the Raiders - along with other teams like the Patriots, Jets and Chargers - into the NFL, and paved the way for the Super Bowl.

It wasn't all positive. Davis was a constant thorn in the side of NFL executives and owners. He sued the league five times, most notoriously in the early 1980's, so he could move the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles, only to head back to Oakland in 1995. And the Raiders have struggled on the field lately, with Davis and his obsession with the outmoded "vertical passing game" partly responsible for the decline. The 2002 season - which culminated in a loss to Tampa Bay in the Super Bowl - was Oakland's last with a winning record.

There's no doubt that Davis was a forerunner of today's modern NFL owners. Although he made his money only from football - no outside corporations or family fortunes to rely on - he was surely an inspiration to current, ego-driven owners like Jerry Jones of Dallas and Daniel Snyder of Washington.

The legacy of the Raiders lives on because of Al Davis. The team - much like Collingwood - is either loved or hated; there's little middle ground. And when his time comes, he won't be the most popular member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he'll deserve to be there.