Kiffin And His 'Hang In There' Cat Poster Could Be Gone By Tonight

This is kind of a shocker even for Al Davis: Despite a solid win over Kansas City on Sunday, Lane Kiffin is reportedly as good as gone as head coach of the Raiders, perhaps as early as this week. The Chronicle's Nancy Gay says that it's going to be Rob Ryan taking over. And once again we're reminded that HBO made a huge miscalculation in deciding to follow the Cowboys in a reality series instead of the Raiders.

What NFL franchise would dump the head coach with a 1-1 record two weeks into a 17-week season? This one. Kiffin is finished in Oakland; it's now a matter of when. His fate was sealed Wednesday, when Kiffin told the media that the 41-14 Monday night meltdown against the Broncos happened in large part because defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and the team's owner conspire to exclude him from defensive decisions. With that, the NFL's youngest head coach was dead to Davis.

And here's the beauty part, from Davis' perspective anyway: Even though Kiffin is being fired, Davis is not planning on paying him the remainder of his three-year, $6 million contract. That's because Kiffin is going to be canned for "insubordination," stemming mostly from his comments on Wednesday in which he said Ryan and Davis have conspired to keep him out of the loop when discussing game plans. All part of Davis' master plan to win two more Super Bowls before retirement. Kiffin On His Way Out, Despite Victory [San Francisco Chronicle]