49ers coach shares cherished memories from his time with Raiders
Note: Here is the unedited version of my interview last week with Jim Harbaugh in his office. My intent was to seize his favorite memories and lessons from late Raiders owner Al Davis, who I had a fascinating interview with in 2006. This isn to drum up talk of Harbaugh possibly going to the Raiders next year but rather to reveal how much he respected Davis heading into Sunday game at Oakland.
One of Jim Harbaugh's most revered mentors was Al Davis. The respect was mutual. Once Harbaugh finished his 15 year career as a NFL quarterback, he got his coaching start as a Raiders assistant in 2002 03.
"Al always respected him because he played. Al liked players," Hall of Fame coach John Madden said. "He felt the guys that played would relate better to players. He also respected Jim because he was a tough guy, a smart guy, a grinder."
Now in his fourth season as 49ers coach, Harbaugh recently was asked to share his memories of the late Davis heading into next Sunday's game at Oakland.
A flood of praise, gratitude and comical revelations flowed from Harbaugh's brain during a 30 minute interview with this newspaper in his corner office at the 49ers headquarters.
Harbaugh declined to state whether Davis ever pursued him to become the Raiders coach, but Madden noted: "Somwhere in Al's mind, he had it that someday Jim would be the Raiders head coach. I don't know if Jim ever had that in his mind."
Here is the question and answer session with Harbaugh:
I've heard you quote Churchill, Emerson and, among others, Al Davis. His 'Just Win, Baby' is very appropriate this season, since you're winning, and you just need to win right now. What are your favorite memories?
"Certain people, coaches, have a profound, positive outcome on somebody's life. And Al Davis had a profound, positive outcome on my life. Not just professionally, but family, as well. There aren't days that don't go by where there's something that affects my family or my job, that I learned from him. Very thankful and a lot of gratitude for those two years that I worked for him."
Did you know him before those two years, as an offensive cheap prom dresses assistant in the 2002 03 seasons?
"I had met him before. In terms of team building and your family, things he taught that I learned. Forever proud and forever grateful to have those two years. But I had met him to shake his hand. He'd be down on the sidelines when I was playing. He'd always shake hands or interact with players from his own team but also players from other teams. I enjoyed those interactions. Then, must have been the offseason of (1993), I visited the Raiders, had a workout down in El Segundo, and about a two hour conversation with Mr. Davis. It felt like 15 minutes. And then, they didn't end up signing me, they ended up signing Jeff Hostetler. But the last thing he said after conversation was, 'You'll be a Raider someday. You'll be a Raider.' (Laughs.) Then when he hired me, that was the first thing he said: 'I told you you'd be a Raider.' "
How did you get your coaching start there, with the Raiders?
"My brother said, 'What do you want to do know?' I said I wanted to get started in coaching. So he had talked to some people http://www.uniqueproms.com/ around the league, and the Raiders called and brought me in for an interview, and I interviewed with Bill Callahan."
How often did you see Al around the facility?
"He was there every day. So I get hired, and it must have been a week after the combine, and now I'm in coaching. This is the Cheap Evening Dresses first time I'm part of a coaching staff, sitting at a table on a staff, and Al Davis is preparing for the draft. That was my first introduction to being on a coaching staff."
You were on your dad's, though, at Western Kentucky?
"Yeah, but I was also playing professional football at the time I was on my dad's staff. This was my first time it being a full time job. That was the detail, listen to his knowledge, his wisdom, his history of the game, going back to Sid Gilman and the advancement of the modern day passing game. The architect of two leagues merging together, the history how that was orchestrated. That was my introduction. Just tremendous insight and opportunity to learn. I was so excited to hear what he was saying, and go back to my office to write it down so I could remember it. I would hang on every word and just the way he did things. Anticipate and resolve, I believe that's how his mind worked, with hopefully a positive resolution. Player development, drafting players, building a team, thinking outside the box, details. We were talking about Ronald Curry, asking, 'Do you think Ronald could be a quarterback?' He loved he had been a basketball player, the No. 1 recruit, the Gatorade Player of the Year in basketball and football. He would compare him to other players, Vince Evans. He'd say, 'He could play another position. What do ya think?' I gave him my opinion, and my opinion was he would be an offensive player. I thought he would be more of an offensive player, moving forward player. He didn't say agree or disagree. He had his own vision. He looked at this cone that was like 20 yards away, and he goes 'You've got to be able to see past the cone. Most people can just see the cone. You've got to see past the cone.' Yep, I got what he said. I went and wrote it down, thought about it, reflected on it. It's that thinking of outside the box. Eventually he made Ronald Curry a wide receiver, a good one, and a kick returner. That was one of the things that made (Al) so great, that if you just think inside the box, how will you ever gain an advantage, unless you're just supremely better than everybody else. If you don't think outside the box, you're going to be doomed to what you are."
Are you going to make a book out of those notebooks?
"I never thought about that. I think books are about people that are retired or at the end of their careers. I still think I'm in the moment."
You still write in notebooks, right?
"Yep, every day. They're all right here."
I remember you did the same after your visits with Bill Walsh?
When talking with Bill or Al, you just know you're talking to a legend in the game and you soak up everything you can, right?
"Yes, you're in the midst www.cheappromdresses.us.com of greatness, and you know it. I don't want to talk. I just want to listen."
Would you sit with him on the charter flights?
"No, I was low level. I was not called up to talk to him. I just literally got my computer out. He would stand and look. He held everybody accountable. That was part of his greatness."
You had a story where he asked you how you were doing?
"He asked me, 'How are you doing Jim.' I said, 'I'm doing great Mr. Davis. How are you doing?' He said, 'How the frick do you think I'm doing? We've lost two straight games. Ugh.' He was devastated. Two weeks later, we lost two more games, I was at the copier, he walked by me and he said, 'How we doing Jim?' I said, 'We're fighting for our lives, Mr. Davis.' 'That's all we can do, Jim.' "
I had a similar story when we crossed paths before a game in Pittsburgh, and I enjoyed the time I was in good favor with him?
11 Museum To Charge Admission Fee
The decision to charge for the underground museum housing relics of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks has been greeted with dismay by some relatives of 9/11 victims.
"People are coming to pay their respects and for different reasons," said Janice Testa Michael Kors Outlet of Valley Stream, whose firefighter brother Henry Miller Jr. died at the twin towers. "It shouldn't be a place where you go and see works of art. It should more be like a memorial place like a church that there's no entry fee."
The memorial plaza opened in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks, but disputes over funding have pushed the museum's opening back to spring of 2014.
With the cost of operating the memorial and museum projected to be $60 million a year, the memorial foundation voted at its board meeting last week to charge a mandatory admission fee for the museum.
"This is something that is going to be important and is going to be worth the expenditure," Joseph Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, said Saturday.
Daniels said the museum will be free during certain hours every week and will offer student and senior discounts.
Foundation officials had considered an optional donation but rejected the idea.
"We decided that it's more fiscally prudent to have a straight ticket charge," Daniels said.
Debra Burlingame, a foundation board member whose brother was the Cheap Michael Kors pilot of one of the hijacked planes, said the trade center site is expensive to build on and to protect.
"The World Trade Center site remains a target of interest among terrorists, so the security has to be robust and relentless," Burlingame said in a phone interview. "There's a big price tag on that.
"Would we like to be able to say this is free? Absolutely," Burlingame added. But she called it "irresponsible to hope that year after year we have donations that will cover an expense like security."
Some visitors to the memorial were divided about charging admission to the museum.
"You need to keep it open, you need to keep it running," she said. "It's an expense.
But Jennifer Reyes, a friend of Cericola's daughter who has a connection to the trade center site because she was born on Sept. 11, 2001, said the museum should ask for an optional donation.
Childhood friends from Italy, Lucrezia Susca, 78, left, and Chiara Pesce, 75, center, hold photos of their grandchildren Grace Gollante Susca and Danny Pesce, who were also friends and died together while working cheapermichaelkorsoutlet.us.com at Cantor Fitzgerald, as friends and relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center attend a ceremony marking the 11th anniversary of the attacks at the National September 11 Memorial at the World Trade Center site in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
6 investing dos and don for 2014
Take Japan for example. For years, the Tokyo market was a backwater for investors. Money just sloshed around and profits were few and far between. Then last year Prime Minister Shinzo Abe introduced a policy of aggressive economic reform and the Nikkei took off, gaining more than 50 per cent. Anyone who invested in Japanese funds did exceedingly well.
The profits on Wall Street weren quite as spectacular but gains of more than 30 per cent for Nasdaq and over 25 per cent for the S 500 were more than most investors expected.
Don keep too much www.replicachristianlouboutin.com at home. The Toronto Stock Exchange lagged well behind its New York counterparts last year, in large part because of the dismal showing of the mining sector, particularly gold producers. The outlook for resources in the coming year isn much brighter. We aren likely to see such heavy losses but the chances of a huge upside turnaround aren very good either. Without that, the TSX will continue to sputter. We may beat last year advance of 9.6 per cent, but not by much. Best bet: Industrial stocks, such as auto parts makers, which will benefit from the lower dollar. louboutin replica The American economy appears to be gaining momentum, albeit on a two steps forward, one step back basis. indexes are due for a correction and that could come at any time. When it does and be assured, it will take advantage of the retreat. blue chip stocks or units of funds that invest in them.
Related: As replica louboutin economy grows, dividends are rising
Don replica louboutin shoes buy hedged funds or ETFs. Hedging works in your favour when the Canadian dollar is rising. It diminishes your returns when the loonie is retreating, as it has been for the past year. Economists disagree about where our dollar will settle against the greenback but most believe there is more downside left. In that case, unhedged funds will work to your advantage by allowing you to capture the currency gain.
Do diversify globally. Japan wasn the only overseas market to do well last year. Surprisingly, the major European markets all scored double digit gains and frontier markets the new leading edge of investing gained 25 per cent. So expand your horizons. Best bets: Conservative investors should stick with funds that invest in developed markets. If you more aggressive, put a little cash in an emerging markets fund. They had a bad year in 2013 and are due for a rebound.
Don overweight bonds. Everyone should own some bonds or bond funds for stability and protection against the effects of a 2008 style market crash. But don overdo it. The long bull market in bonds came to a screeching end last May and our DEX Universe Bond Index actually lost ground in 2013, the first time that happened in several years. This year may not be as bad, but it won be great either. Best bets: For conservative investors, short term bonds or funds. More aggressive investors may be able to squeeze some extra profit out of high yield bonds or funds.
Don buy gold. Worries about a double dip recession, the printing of billions of dollars a month in new money by the Federal Reserve Board, and the Eurozone crisis should have given gold a boost in 2013. It didn Now, with recession fears fading and quantitative easing tapering, there not much to propel the price of the precious metal. There will be a time for bullion again this just isn it. Best bet: If you really feel you must own some gold, buy a few shares in a royalty company such as Franco Nevada (TSX: FNV). They carry much less risk than the miners and the stocks have stood up better as a result.
Correction. My last column, on Tax Free Savings Accounts, contained two errors. The first was question four, which was incorrectly formulated. It should have read: How much can you transfer from an RRSP to a TFSA each year?
5 Famous Ad Campaigns That Actually Hurt Sales
Jared has sold a shitload of Subway sandwiches. Ronald McDonald has become one of the most recognizable characters in the history of human civilization. They are what ad executives dream about: campaigns that become media sensations and make the company billions. But then there are the ad campaigns that only do the first part; everybody can quote them, but they didn't actually make people buy the product. Like .
5. The Taco Bell ChihuahuaCreated in 1997, the Taco Bell Chihuahua was the fast food chain's big attempt to establish a mascot for their brand. Common logic must have been the driving force here, as Taco Bell is a fake Mexican restaurant, and the Chihuahua is a fake Mexican dog.
A Chihuahua in its natural state: filled with rage.
The dog itself (first played by a dog named Binky, then quickly replaced by one named Gidget, presumably over a bitter contract dispute) and its catchphrase "Yo quiero Taco Bell" skyrocketed in mainstream popularity, as irritating things have a habit of doing.
When the Chihuahua was abruptly yanked off Taco Bell ads in 2000, people became suspicious. Many believed that the dog had died and was now being served in gordita form to its adoring fanbase. In reality, the ads were cut because their presence led directly to a 6 percent drop in Taco Bell sales. These results were so bad that the president of Taco Bell, Peter Waller, was swiftly replaced by a former executive for Wendy's.
Because you don't sell a product with talking dogs. You sell it with sex.
As for why exactly the ad didn't make people want to buy actual Taco Bell food, we're going to guess that there's a big difference between saying that, for instance, a cartoon rabbit loves Trix cereal and saying that a real dog likes Taco Bell. Real dogs eat garbage and cat shit. For a chain whose biggest problem is convincing customers that their beef is graded for human consumption, it's bizarre that it thought the best selling point was, "Don't worry, this tiny dog loves it!"
We'd rather eat Alpo than this.
Things went from bad to worse in 2003 when a long fought legal battle ended between Taco Bell and two men who claimed the company had stolen their idea of a Spanish speaking Chihuahua, an idea so uniquely brilliant that no one else in the history of the world could have ever thought of it. The two men claimed the Taco Bell executives had signed a contract with them only to back out of the deal and steal the idea for buy fake oakleys themselves. A jury agreed with them, and awarded them $42 million in damages. Essentially Taco Bell stole a terrible idea and got screwed by it twice.
We consider it payback for the hundreds of productive hours lost on the toilet after Taco Bell burritos.
4. The Energizer BunnyFor those of you not alive in the mid '90s, the Energizer bunny was a marketing mascot created by Energizer to one up the already firmly established Duracell bunny in the highly lucrative rabbit/battery market.
The '90s: When advertisers completely ran out of ideas.
The Duracell version was created buy replica oakleys in 1973 to showcase their batteries' ability to hold a charge significantly longer than other, inferior battery brands. The ads featured a group of pink toy bunnies all playing the drums simultaneously. Each would quit, one by one, as their batteries died.
This is somehow related to batteries.
That's why in 1989, Energizer released their own ad mocking the famous Duracell campaign. It started with the familiar scene, but then after the Duracell bunny was left alone, the Energizer's much cooler bunny (he had sunglasses!) would roll into the scene, showing that he could play the drums so long it made all other toy bunnies look like a pile of shit.
The response to the Energizer ad was enormous. Fans saw the new Energizer bunny as cool, exciting and badass, because to be perfectly honest there wasn't much else going on in Cheap Sunglasses 1989 (it was becoming clear that a nuclear war wasn't going to happen, and that was a pretty big letdown). The Energizer bunny, originally intended as a one time parody of the pre existing Duracell bunny, soon took off and became a pop culture icon. Over the next 20 years, 115 Energizer bunny ads were created that included other pop culture figures.
We're betting you don't have any goddamned idea. Let's face it, it's not like one brand of battery is radically different from another. This isn't Mac vs PC here. You don't even see them they stay hidden away in the battery compartment of the gadget. It's hard to even get a sense of which one lasts longer, unless you keep a running calendar of the battery change dates on everything you own. And in that case, you probably also keep jars of your own fingernail clippings.
So here we had products that are already difficult to distinguish from one another. And already Duracell had established that theirs was the one with the bunny that played a drum. The Energizer bunny was a . well .
But he has sunglasses, see? He's dangerous.
So even after seeing the ads thousands of times, consumers had no idea which brand was which. In 1990, near the peak of the Energizer bunny's popularity, Duracell claimed that 40 percent of its customers thought the campaign was promoting Duracell, not Energizer. Consumers were connecting "battery" and "bunny," but at no http://www.cheapsunglasseswholesale.us.com/ point were they connecting "bunny" and "Energizer." Despite the immense popularity of the ad campaign, Duracell extended its lead over Energizer and held that spot into the late '90s.
It seems like if you really wanted to make a battery that stands out from the crowd, you'd make the battery itself some gaudy color and, we don't know, make the brand name a racial slur or something. At least give people something to remember when they go shopping.
"Try the Golliwogg brand! They're charged with the power of hate."
3. California RaisinsThe California Raisin Board created some ads in the '80s that featured Claymation raisins singing and dancing to soul music. It was kind of like Gumby, if two racists pictured Gumby in their minds before headbutting each other at the speed of light.
Aaron Rodgers or J
As the league's 95th regular season concludes Sunday, with all 32 teams in action to determine the final two playoff participants and conference seedings, it seems the MVP debate has boiled down to the above two candidates.
The MVP award ought to go the Texas tornado that wears No. Watt. No player in the NFL is so clearly the best at his position as Watt is at 3 4 defensive end. The next highest grade is Sheldon Richardson of the New York Jets at 38.2.
PFF credits Watt with 43 quarterback hits. The next five ranked 3 4 DEs Richardson and Muhammad Wilkerson of the Jets, Philadelphia's Fletcher Cox, Arizona's Calais Campbell and Pittsburgh's Cameron Heyward have 43 combined.
And on you can go.
But Watt isn't just a defender.
In his cameos at tight end, the Wholesale NFL Jerseys fourth year pro has caught three touchdown passes, on all of three catches. Combined with his pick six against Buffalo and fumble six against Indianapolis, Watt has scored five touchdowns in 2014 more than most running backs and receivers in the league.
Barring a major shift in historical voting preference, however, the MVP award almost will go to an offensive player. The likeliest recipient on that side of the ball, picked here in the preseason to win it, is the Green Bay Packers quarterback, Rodgers.
The 10th year pro is in position Nike NFL Jerseys Wholesale to finish with a passer rating above 100 for the sixth consecutive season, which would be an NFL record. EST, on CTV from Saskatchewan eastward) Rodgers has a 36 to 5 touchdown to interception ratio.
That's better than 7 1. Next best in that regard is Tony Romo of Dallas, with a 4 1 ratio. Wholesale NFL Jerseys China Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Russell Wilson all have ratios between 3 1 and 4 1. No other passer, including Peyton Manning (at less than 3 1) ranks as high http://www.cheapnfljerseyscenter.us in this telling measurable.
Even though Rodgers has had a few clunker performances in road games most recently at Buffalo on Dec. 14 he's the most worthy offensive performer for the one man MVP.
No MVP operates alone. Not only does he make his teammates better the basis for the award but in most cases he would not be, nor look, nearly as good without at least one star player shining with him in tandem.
And in some cases, such as last year when Denver quarterback Peyton Manning was named MVP, several star players in concert all raised each other's games.
Who are this season's most dynamic duos?
The only asterisk we'll place on this "co MVP" award is that candidates must play on the same side of the ball, for such complementary purposes.
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