Straight Outta L.A.

Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland/Las Vegas: sounds like a streetwalker's itinerary, and Al Davis was indeed the worst and ugliest streetwalker in professional sports history

I have enjoyed many of the "30 for 30" documentaries--even though I am really not a sports fan. Mostly it's because they often tell very compelling stories and are exceptionally crafted. However, I had a really hard time getting myself to watch "Straight Outta L.A." and I think I should point this out because I did have a bias against it. One of the reasons is that I don't like rap music-- especially gangster rap. And, the film was made by Ice Cube from NWA (I would love to say was 'NWA' stands for but IMDb won't allow this--I could get banned or at least get this review removed if I did this). But the biggest reason is because I absolutely hate what Al Davis has done with the Raiders and think his actions have done a lot to hurt the NFL and hurt many fans. Let me explain. He owns the Raiders and they'd been a very successful team in Oakland. Then, he decides to move the team to Los Angeles and he sued the NFL to do this. I had mixed feelings about this at the time--LA was the second largest market in the US and they had no team and I sure think they deserved one. But the Raiders were supported by the fans in Oakland and I didn't want to see Oakland screwed. Ultimately Oakland AND LA ended up getting screwed, as after a few seasons in LA, Davis packed the team up and moved BACK to Oakland! Wow...talk about contempt for the fans!! So, understand that I hate what Al Davis has done to football. And, this surely must have impacted my feelings about "Straight Outta LA"!

Despite all this, I like the documentary for several reasons. First, while it was made by Ice Cube, it was professionally made and compelling--so he did a good job. Second, it didn't 'whitewash' the story. It did admit that the image of the LA Raiders had become so thuggish that fans were afraid to attend the games. Heck, ex- players admit that they wouldn't let their families attend. So, you could understand Davis' decision to move the team...at least to a degree. On the other hand, some folks thought Davis was a bit nuts and some of the criticism of him and his actions is pretty harsh. I also appreciated that. So overall, despite my preconceptions, the show is well done and worth seeing.

30 for 30: Straight Outta L.A. (2010)

*** (out of 4)

Another entry in ESPN's series, this one here takes a look at how gangster rap and the Oakland Raiders went together and turned a popular team into one of the biggest merchandise sellers in the world. Director Ice Cube, who was there when most of this broke, explains how the violence of the city was just right for the violence of the Raiders. I was pretty surprised to see how many people Cube gathered for this documentary as we get members from the original NWA group, Ice-T, various Raiders players including Marcus Allen and we even get Al Davis. I was shocked to see Davis who is still hard as nails in terms of doing things his own way and it's still rather funny to hear him try to explain how he's doing stuff his way and how it's the best thing for everyone. I think, for the most part, this is a pretty good documentary, although at times it seems to be all over the place. Part of it wants to cover the Raiders. Part of it wants to cover the early explosion of gangster rap. Then we get into the more political stuff of the L.A. riots and whether or not rap was causing people to be killed. There's a lot of stuff that tries to get covered in 50-minutes and at times one thinks things could have played out better with a little more running time. With that said, what's here is an interesting story and with all the familiar faces being interviewed things never get boring.