And now that the Raiders have left for Oakland, Calif., the same people who criticized the Rams for taking the money and running are criticizing Raider owner Al Davis for running away from the big money.

But most people don’t understand Davis. Certainly not most people in Los Angeles. That’s why he’s taking his team elsewhere.

It is difficult to describe the essence of this man without resorting to all the time-worn cliches about winning. But, in the end, Just win, baby, corny as it may sound, is not a cliche for Al Davis. It is the guiding principle of his life.

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Above all else, it is the overriding reason he is going back to Oakland.

To all those who still snicker at such logic, explain the fact that Davis accepted the Oakland deal, rewarding to the Raiders as it is, over the far more lucrative Hollywood Park proposal, one that would have been one of the top two or three richest stadium deals in the National Football League. Explain the fact that Davis has willingly lowered the value of his franchise by moving it from large-market Los Angeles to small-market Oakland.

There are few, if any, owners who would have made such a move. But Davis has always been nothing more than a coach in owner’s clothing.

While other owners spend their afternoons meeting with their accountants and lawyers, plotting the next increase in ticket prices, Davis prefers to spend his time on the sidelines at practice, yelling at a defensive back to keep his eye on the ball.

Davis would rather be in the locker room than the board room.

So while all his financial advisers patted him on the back in recent years and told him how much his franchise had grown in value by relocating to Los Angeles, Davis would look out at row after row of empty seats in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and frown.