Paul Fannin
Well-Known Member
NFL-wise, this has been the winter of my discontent.
Once pro football's most dynamic organization, the proud Raiders have fallen into the outhouse of sports futility. Alternately they were once the combination of the NFL's most hated and most loved team; seldom was there any in-between. There was once a time when whole franchises would mark their matchup with the Raiders on the calendar, and then wish they hadn't, bedeviled by the Silver and Black mystique. Never in my lifetime would I have ever imagined that the Raiders would fall to lowest of the dregs, but I am faced with the reality that since their Super Bowl appearance 4 years ago, they are the losingest team in the NFL. The prospects for improvement hinge in large measure with the upcoming draft; not only their 1st Round pick, but also with subsequent rounds. While impact players generally come from the high rounds, the more important building-blocks of an NFL team are assembled in lower rounds. Some may remember that many years ago, the Minnesota Vikings obtained Herschel Walker and in return gave the Dallas Cowboys a phalanx of players and draft picks that led directly to 3 consecutive Super Bowl Championships in the 1990's.
What is particularly bleak is the prospect that the Raiders will never get the kind of powerful Head Coach so vital in today's game, as long as Al Davis is running the show. I have been a great admirer and staunch supporter of Mr. Davis, who in other eras, and certainly under different parameters, assembled some of the greatest teams and collection of greatest players in NFL history. The hallmark of those teams of the past, win or lose, were the historic and
sheer excitement of the games in which they played: the Heidi Game in 1968 vs. the New York Jets, in which much of the East Coast didn't see the Raiders turn the tide against Namath and the boys with two touchdowns in the span of a minute and a half; the crushing defeat at Pittsburgh in the AFC Playoffs of 1972 and the (for me anyway) infamous "Immaculate Reception;" the "Sea of Hands" game in which the Raiders stopped Miami's attempt at a 3rd straight Super Bowl title in 1974 at Oakland (the greatest game I've ever seen, it still resonates today); "Ghost to the Post" in Baltimore in 1976 when the Raiders nipped the Colts (yep, the Colts were in Baltimore in those days) in the playoffs; "The Snow Bowl" in Cleveland and the improbable interception that doomed the Browns in 1980 with the Raiders in-route to their 2nd Super Bowl title; "The Tuck" at New England in 2001, to this day my bitterest sports memory; the point being, great teams play in great games. If two doormats were playing in "The Tuck" game, no one would remember or even care.
A good draft could point the Raiders to a light at the end of the tunnel; a misstep could doom the Raiders to outer darkness for the foreseeable future.
Anyway, what I was leading up to is this: look for the San Diego Chargers to face the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl, with the Chargers winning decisively.
Once pro football's most dynamic organization, the proud Raiders have fallen into the outhouse of sports futility. Alternately they were once the combination of the NFL's most hated and most loved team; seldom was there any in-between. There was once a time when whole franchises would mark their matchup with the Raiders on the calendar, and then wish they hadn't, bedeviled by the Silver and Black mystique. Never in my lifetime would I have ever imagined that the Raiders would fall to lowest of the dregs, but I am faced with the reality that since their Super Bowl appearance 4 years ago, they are the losingest team in the NFL. The prospects for improvement hinge in large measure with the upcoming draft; not only their 1st Round pick, but also with subsequent rounds. While impact players generally come from the high rounds, the more important building-blocks of an NFL team are assembled in lower rounds. Some may remember that many years ago, the Minnesota Vikings obtained Herschel Walker and in return gave the Dallas Cowboys a phalanx of players and draft picks that led directly to 3 consecutive Super Bowl Championships in the 1990's.
What is particularly bleak is the prospect that the Raiders will never get the kind of powerful Head Coach so vital in today's game, as long as Al Davis is running the show. I have been a great admirer and staunch supporter of Mr. Davis, who in other eras, and certainly under different parameters, assembled some of the greatest teams and collection of greatest players in NFL history. The hallmark of those teams of the past, win or lose, were the historic and
sheer excitement of the games in which they played: the Heidi Game in 1968 vs. the New York Jets, in which much of the East Coast didn't see the Raiders turn the tide against Namath and the boys with two touchdowns in the span of a minute and a half; the crushing defeat at Pittsburgh in the AFC Playoffs of 1972 and the (for me anyway) infamous "Immaculate Reception;" the "Sea of Hands" game in which the Raiders stopped Miami's attempt at a 3rd straight Super Bowl title in 1974 at Oakland (the greatest game I've ever seen, it still resonates today); "Ghost to the Post" in Baltimore in 1976 when the Raiders nipped the Colts (yep, the Colts were in Baltimore in those days) in the playoffs; "The Snow Bowl" in Cleveland and the improbable interception that doomed the Browns in 1980 with the Raiders in-route to their 2nd Super Bowl title; "The Tuck" at New England in 2001, to this day my bitterest sports memory; the point being, great teams play in great games. If two doormats were playing in "The Tuck" game, no one would remember or even care.
A good draft could point the Raiders to a light at the end of the tunnel; a misstep could doom the Raiders to outer darkness for the foreseeable future.
Anyway, what I was leading up to is this: look for the San Diego Chargers to face the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl, with the Chargers winning decisively.
