During the recent NFL annual meeting in Arizona, the owners approved a transaction that satisfied a clear league requirement.
Every owner must have a succession plan at all times. The Raiders didn’t have one. They now do.
It’s as simple as that. Each and every year, every controlling owner must supply to the NFL the name of the person who will inherit the right to cast votes on league matters in the event the controlling owner dies or becomes incapacitated.
Reading between the lines, the official successor to Mark Davis had been his mother, Carol. Following her passing in October 2025, Mark Davis needed a new successor. The latest transaction filled that void.
“I don’t have any children or a wife at this time,” Mark Davis told Paul Gutierrez of Raiders.com, “and so it was prudent to put together a succession plan that would make sure that there were no issues, should something happen to me or should I decide. . . .”
To sell, obviously. The fact that Mark Davis didn’t finish the thought says plenty.
Remember when the news first emerged that Egon Durban would be buying another piece of the team and becoming the successor to Mark Davis? The notion that Mark Davis had no intention to sell the team didn’t come from Mark Davis. It came from an unnamed source. If/when Mark Davis does indeed cash out, there’s no specific person who’ll be eating crow for being wrong.
As to his characterization that it would be “prudent” to have a succession plan, that’s a massive understatement. He has to have one. The league absolutely demands it.
Of course, the succession plan is always subject to change. At one point, Bruce Beal was the official successor to Dolphins owner Stephen Ross. After the tampering fiasco of 2022, which traced ultimately to Beal’s incessant efforts to lure Tom Brady to Miami, that changed.
The current Mark Davis succession plan is subject to change, too. If the 71-year-old Davis gets married and/or has one or more children, the Raiders possibly will remain in the Davis family for another generation. Unless and until that happens, the question becomes whether controlling interest in the Raiders will be transferred during or after Mark Davis’s lifetime.
For now, he has created an off ramp, should he choose to use it. The question is whether, and when, he will.
After more than 14 years of serving as the primary owner, the possibility of Mark Davis stepping aside can’t be completely ignored. Consider his comments about the chronic efforts (unsuccessful to date) to turn the struggling franchise around.
“Since my dad passed away, I’ve been trying to find a structure and continuity and the right people to run it,” Davis said, via Callie Fin of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “[It’s] similar to what I did with the [WNBA’s] Aces. Get the right people, and then get [the fuck] out of the way.”
The problem has been getting the right people. In 2018, Mark Davis thought he had the right person in Jon Gruden. After Gruden’s second stint with the team ended abruptly during the 2021 season, Davis had no one to provide the “stability” he wanted in the organization. When Tom Brady retired from playing for good (we think) after the 2022 season, he became the guy to whom Davis turned for that stability.
Stability remains elusive, possibly due to the fact that Brady and Davis aren’t on the same page about Brady’s role.
At some point, Davis may decide there’s nothing else he can do. That he has tried every way possible to “get the right people,” and he’s out of ideas and options.
That’s the point at which Davis could decide to finish the thought.
“Should I decide. . . .”
He may, in time, realize he should decide to sell. That he should take the money and run. Declare victory and retreat. Live out his days without the constant torment that he won’t be able to restore the Commitment to Excellence and/or honor his father’s three-word mandate.
Just win, baby.
As the only baby ever sired by Al Davis continues the slow creep toward his 80th birthday, Mark Davis could be closing in on concluding that he’s not the right steward of the franchise to fulfill his father’s wishes.
If and when that happens, Mark Davis will have a final epiphany.
Just sell, baby.
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