BATTLE OF THE PIRATES SUPER BOWL WILL DETERMINE IF SWASHBUCKLER NO. 1 - AL DAVIS - STILL HAS IT.

Byline: Michael A. Anastasi Sports Editor 

SAN DIEGO - Of all the delicious story lines here, perhaps the most intriguing is this: Is Al Davis relevant?

A man who wooed us, who spurned us, who still claims us in Los Angeles as his territory - and probably is right. A man who loves his players as family but hates the one who was elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday. A man who repeatedly has proven he possesses a vision far ahead of the times yet dresses so, oddly, behind them. A man who unlike any other owner in professional sports rules his team his way, ruthlessly and lovingly.

A man who is intriguing because this Raiders team, like all Raiders teams before it, is Al Davis' team and, at age 73, he faces the question that we all must some day: Do I still matter?

``One thing we all know,'' Oakland quarterback Rich Gannon said, ``is that he's a guy that makes his own decisions and lives with them.''

Which is why Jon Gruden, 37, now coaches Tampa Bay.

The Buccaneers and Raiders face each other here at Qualcomm Stadium this afternoon for the National Football League championship, Super Bowl XXXVII.

Oakland brings the NFL's top-ranked offense and its most valuable player. Tampa Bay brings the league's top-ranked defense, its defensive player of the year - and Gruden, who happened to be the Raiders' coach last year and for three seasons before that.

Gruden took the Raiders to the postseason twice and recruited most of the players, including Gannon, the MVP, who have brought Oakland to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1984.

Like Davis, who was a head coach and general manager by the time he was 33 and headed the old AFL at age 36, Gruden is a football prodigy. And he tired of looking over his shoulder.

Tampa Bay was willing to pay Davis $8 million and draft picks to get Gruden out of his Raiders deal a year early. Davis was willing to let a jolly offensive-line coach named Bill Callahan change the name plate on his desk and become his new head coach.

``I was running out on a contract and some of the things that happened have happened,'' Gruden said. ``I don't live in a rear-view mirror. I am very proud and respectful of where I come from. I learned a great deal there and met some profound people - coaches, players, and I met an owner who taught me a great deal.

``I have no bitterness,'' Gruden said. ``Maybe they do.''

Or, more precisely, maybe Davis does.

``I talk to him all the time,'' said Oakland tackle Lincoln Kennedy, the 350-or-so-pound anchor of an offensive line many believe is the league's best. ``He surrounds himself with us. He doesn't separate himself from us in any capacity. What we go through as a team, he goes through, whether win or lose.''

What they've gone through this season has been all winning, save for a four-game losing streak in the season's second month and a late loss to Miami. Callahan, the first rookie head coach to reach a Super Bowl, is widely credited by players for keeping their confidence high during the losing stretch.

And now, with 13 victories, including last week's 41-24 rout of Tennessee in the AFC championship game, the Raiders are favored by 3 1/2 points in Las Vegas and by much more than that by their oft-creepy fans sure that destiny, and a fourth Vince Lombardi Trophy, is theirs.

Raiders wide receivers Tim Brown (81 receptions, 930 yards this season) and Jerry Rice (92, 1,211) will go down as two of the most elite to ever play the game. Blossoming Jerry Porter has eclipsed them both this postseason, averaging 17.5 yards with 10 catches.

Charlie Garner rushed for 962 yards and seven touchdowns, but it's actually as a receiver - his 91 receptions are the most of any running back in the league - that he is a game-breaker.

Gannon obviously can throw, and he's a money scrambler, but it's his encyclopedic knowledge of the system Gruden installed that allowed him to lead the Raiders to a league-best scoring average of 28 points a game.

Of course, Gannon and the Raiders haven't yet played a defense as complete as the Bucs'.

With linebacker Derrick Brooks (four touchdowns) the reigning defensive player of the year, linemen Simeon Rice (15 1/2 sacks) and Warren Sapp perhaps the best two at their positions in the NFL, and cornerback Brian Kelly the league leaguer in interceptions, Tampa Bay allowed opponents a league-low 12.2 points a game.

``It is going to be a game of epic proportion. There is no hiding the truth,'' Simeon Rice said. ``The two best of the best. It is going to be a war of attrition, through and through. They know us. We know them.''

Gruden, who replaced the popular Tony Dungy, led the Bucs to 14 victories (including 27-10 over Philadelphia for the NFC championship) and hasn't really looked back since an overtime loss at home to open the season.

``It is unbelievable that he has gone down there and did what he did in one year,'' Brown said.

But Oakland can stop an offense, too, and that probably will be what decides this game.

While Tampa Bay features a quarterback (Brad Johnson) who once was Gannon's backup and is best known this season for not making too many mistakes, the Raiders' defense - led by tackle Sam Adams, linebacker Bill Romanowski and corner Charles Woodson - is ranked 11th in the league and is certainly a strong, if not elite, unit.

``We know what we do Sundays,'' tackle John Parrella said. ``We have a bunch of fighters and a bunch of scrappy guys who line up and fight with you.''

And that's exactly what Al Davis has been, and has done, his entire life. The players he has now he hand-picked, and no one is a star, at least in his prime. Gannon is no Joe Montana, Garner no Tony Dorsett. Jerry Rice is, well, Jerry Rice, but he's 40 and balding.

``(Davis) has his own way,'' Gruden said.

A way that is validated today. Or consigned to memory by a man who is just like him.

OAKLAND vs.TAMPA BAY

Today, 3:25 p.m.

TV: Ch. 7

Radio: 1070-AM, 1540-AM

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, drawing

Photo:

(1 -- color) no caption (Raiders' Rich Gannon (12))

(2 -- color) no caption (Buccaneers' Warren Sapp (99))

(3) Oakland owner Al Davis has run his team his way from the beginning. If the Raiders beat Tampa Bay today, it will have been worth it.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

Drawing:

BATTLE OF THE PIRATES

Jon Gerung/Staff Artist