Tom Flores

He was quiet, modest, unassuming, quite unlike almost any football coach you ever saw. He never raised his voice, threw his weight around. All he did was win. People who came around the team camp for the first time thought he was the trainer. Or, at best, an assistant in charge of the kicking teams. He won two Super Bowls, four division championships and two conference championships. He never had a nickname such as Hoss or Bull or Grizzly. No one ever called him Genius.

Tom Flores, who coached the Raiders to a pair of Super Bowl championships in the 1980s, was named president and general manager of the Seattle Seahawks Wednesday. Flores won out over former sports agent Mike Blatt, who helped put together the sale of the Seahawks to Kenneth Behring last August. Blatt had been running the NFL franchise as its acting chief executive officer since Behring fired Mike McCormack as president and general manager Jan. 30.

Former Raiders coach Tom Flores today was named general manager and president of the Seattle Seahawks by team owner Ken Behring. He replaces Mike McCormack. The announcement at Seahawks headquarters followed more than a week of speculation that Flores, 51, a longtime friend of the multimillionaire team owner, would be given the job.

Former Raiders Coach Tom Flores has confirmed that he is interested in becoming general manager of the Seattle Seahawks and is discussing the position with team owner Ken Behring. Flores, 51, coached the Raiders to two Super Bowl titles in 11 years before resigning after the 1987 season. "Right now, I can only say I've talked to Ken Behring and I am talking to Ken Behring and there's a strong possibility we're going to talk again," Flores told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

This has been a difficult off-season for former Raider Coach Tom Flores--the toughest he's ever had. Every day poses a hard new problem. Where, he keeps asking himself, should he play golf today? Last week Flores was in Hawaii, where he went from one golf course to another, playing four days out of five. This week he's playing at Lake Tahoe, and on Monday he'll be back at Riviera. "It's getting a little easier, but not much," he said. "My game is finally better than my handicap (17)."

The departure of Tom Flores as head coach of the Raiders is one of those rare instances involving a virtually irreplaceable man. It isn't just that he is the only coach to lead a wild-card team to a Super Bowl championship, one of the few to win two Super Bowls, it is also losing a leviathan who has been an inspiration, not only to Americans of Mexican ancestry, but to all who cherish decency and honesty in sports. He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that you can be a winner and still be a gentleman.

The suspense was unbearable. Speculation, theory and rumor filled the mini-auditorium just before the start of Wednesday's blockbuster Raider press conference. What color? That was the big question: What color? "Black," predicted a veteran sportswriter. "No way," scoffed another. "I say white. I've seen Al Davis at enough of these things to know. He'll wear a black suit and white shirt, of course, but his tie will be white ."

Tom Flores, who has coached the Raiders for nine seasons, retired from coaching Wednesday in the wake of a 5-10 season, the team's worst in 25 years. Despite heavy speculation that the Raiders had called a morning press conference to announce not only Flores' retirement but the name of his successor -- most likely the first black head coach in the history of the National Football League -- there was no announcement about the new coach.