Oakland Raiders fire PR director, creating a big PR problem

A Sports Illustrated article that implied former team owner Al Davis was prone to unreasonable decisions seems to have prompted Zak Gilbert’s dismissal.

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The firing was “seemingly for no other than reason than your typical rampant paranoia and unreasonable deflection within the Raiders organization,” wrote blogger Tim Ryan at Big Lead Sports.

Reportedly the team’s principal owner, Mark Davis, was not pleased with the SI article’s portrayal of his father, former team owner Al Davis. In the article, writer Jim Trotter lists a few of the elder Davis’ rash decisions in his final years in charge of the team.

According to Richard Dukas, president and CEO of Dukas Public Relations, the Raiders’ firing of Gilbert shows a fundamental misunderstanding of PR.

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