The first official day for the fifth Raiders coach in six miserable seasons was Wednesday. And Tom Cable was learning on the job.

He stepped to the microphones at the edge of the Raiders' practice field, and seemed a little unsure of what to do next.

"Do I start this?" he asked.

When told by a reporter that Cable could do whatever he wants, Cable raised his eyebrows.

"Oh really?" he said.

Cable is no dummy. If there is any lesson to the past few twisted months, it's that the head coach of the Raiders cannot do what he wants. Cannot say what he wants. Cannot think what he wants.

The fallout from the Raiders continued to reverberate around the NFL. Bill Belichick denied tampering with Randy Moss. Mike Shanahan deadpanned that he was hurt that Al Davis employed Lane Kiffin for 34 days longer than Shanahan, which Shanahan thought meant Davis liked Kiffin better.

Rich Gannon, in a radio interview, said: "It's not a tough place to work, it's an impossible place to work. . . . It's an organization that is, in my opinion, dysfunctional."

Warren Sapp said on television, "Nobody tells you how bad it is." Sapp said he was mad that ex-Raiders didn't warn him and said if anyone calls him for advice he says, "Do not go anywhere near Oakland."

Sapp, who also played for Norv Turner and Art Shell, said Kiffin's firing was unfair.

"He came in there with a change of mentality," Sapp said. "The whole system. He changed how the locker room looked because it was going to take that kind of overhaul for Oakland to become the proud franchise we all knew it was."

Sapp's sentiment was echoed by players still inside the locker room, such as Justin Fargas, whose career flourished under Kiffin.

"I understand what he was trying to do here," Fargas said. "To bring in new things and change the culture around here. But you can't control everything."

Or, really, anything.

The question isn't why Kiffin provoked Davis over and over. The question isn't why Davis was surprised that his uniquely unqualified selection to coach his team didn't end up being the perfect employee. The question isn't whether the players liked Kiffin. That claim really seemed to irritate Davis in his news conference, even though players queried have vouched for Kiffin in the past and did again Wednesday.

The only relevant question is will there ever be another successful head coach of the Oakland Raiders?

Gannon seems to doubt it, saying, "This guy, Tom Cable, the poor guy, does he think he is more equipped and better prepared than his predecessors? In other words, if Jon Gruden couldn't make it there and Bill Callahan couldn't make it there and then if Norv Turner couldn't make it there and then Art Shell couldn't make it there and then Lane Kiffin couldn't make it there, why does he think, all of a sudden, he's going to make it there?"

In fairness to Cable, he didn't think much about it one way or another until Davis asked who he was and hired him. That's one thing Cable has going for him: A productive offensive-line coach, he is neither a desperate retread nor an ambitious ingenue. He didn't want the job he now has, but was willing to take it.

That's probably more than you can say for Raiders assistant coaches Greg Knapp and Tom Rathman. Both are expected to be heading to Seattle to work for Jim Mora next season. If Cable doesn't work out and the offensive staff is gutted, Davis will have to find another coach. And then another. And then another.

We don't know how this madness will end. What we do know is that the only successful coach Davis has hired since returning to Oakland was Gruden, who could have been Kiffined after two seasons.

Tuesday I asked Davis if he thought Kiffin might be like his other ex-coaches who have gone on to success with other teams. Davis didn't answer but mused a bit.

"Shanahan has an asterisk next to those two Super Bowls, because they were caught cheating," Davis said. "Norv Turner does a good job as a coordinator and he's doing a good job as a head coach. Now let's see what he does. I might have been impetuous with him. But he was a good guy."

On Gruden, Davis said, "Jon was a good coach. But don't forgot, I took Jon, no one else even knew who he was. Jon's first two years, he was in tough. He won a big game that kept him alive."

That was the final game of the season at Kansas City. The 41-38 overtime victory Jan. 2, 2000, gave the Raiders an 8-8 record. If Gruden hadn't won that game, Davis probably would have fired him. In other words, the Raiders' fleeting period of glory and stability was thanks to a 33-yard field goal by Joe Nedney.

That was a long, long time ago.