I Always Think of Brian Sipe and Snow When I Think of the Oakland Raiders Playing in Cleveland

was probably in 1998. I remember being around 4 or 5 and watching the Raiders beat the Cowboys. I was just amazed at how they played football. My dad is a Steeler fan, so I wouldn’t watch too many Raider games. I live in Los Angeles, but I never went to a Raider game because i was really small. My dad had won 5 tickets to see them play the Vikings in 1993 (I was a newborn), and he told me he threw those tickets away. I get mad every time he tells me. But yeah, I’ve followed the Raiders since the 1998 season, and will continue for the rest of eternity.

my parents are divorced so i went to my moms on the weekends, and i started watching raider games with my stepdad on sundays, and have been a fan ever since. my first game was raiders and 49ers preseason about 6 years ago. my dad took me and couldnt stand the fact that the raiders won, hes a 49ers fan lol. Go Raiders!!

It seemed like the only channel I had back in the day was ESPN..So thats all I watched was sportscenter..Now, I watch ESPNEWS..But, Football was the only sport that appealed to me..That and Boxing..I eventually ended up playing every sport..But football is the only one I still play

….When I was a young burnout hippie, before that game , everyone from work were “busting”
me because I was the only RAIDER FAN….then the next game AFC Champ. against SD,
then came……S B XV111….

in So Cal, so naturally my first experience watching games was the Ferragamo era Rams. My dad moved to Cali from Boston in his late teens, and was a die hard Red Sox fan, Boston Bruins, Celtics, but ironically, never a Pats fan!

He had season tickets to Anaheim stadium we shared with two of his coworkers, so I got to attend some great Angels games to see guys like Bert Camapaneris, Brian Downing, Don Baylor, Reggie Jackson, Bobby Grich. The list goes on.

Which brings me to the Raiders. While I can’t remember the circumstances surrounding why, I became interested in the Raider team on 1980, I was nine years old, and followed that team to their wild-card victory super bowl appearance.

I remember when I was Plunk dropping back, or Cliff Branch going out, (though when I learned of Freddie Biletnikoff and saw some of him, me being very white, awkward and thin, pretty fast, but not necessarily the best athlete I often was him) or even Lester Hayes or Mike Haynes (what a duo!) at corner when covering your best friend going out for the bomb.

I remember well, the play in Super Bowl XVIII, when then DC Charley Sumner recognized the HB screen play to Joe Washington that gave Washington the momentum to win the season matchup earlier that year against the Raiders, subbed in the wirey Jack Squirek to man up with Joe, and sent madman Lyle Alzado to take Theismann’s head off, and Mr. T put a little too much air under it and Squirek took it into the endzone for six, effectively going up 21-6 and icing the game, Skins fans will remember as “Black Sunday.”

There was always something about the physicality of the Raiders’ teams that made me want to watch the Silver and Black. The Alzados, the Tatums, the Atkinsons, Upshaws, and Romanowskis. Even touchdown Timmy Brown loved to get physical with the dirtiest of corners, and those guys got away with some shit back then. I’ll never forget that Raider line neutralizing the “purple people eaters” completely. I was, and forever will be, hooked.

It’s why I’ll always love and appreciate Al Davis; it’s also why I want to punch babies when I see us field a less than competitive product. If we can say nothing else about this years team, we can say we brought some physicality back to the game. A couple of key pieces, and this defense will put fear into the best of offenses, the biggest of linemen, and the toughest of the tough out there.

Nice reminiscense piece, Saint! Our rival fans always want to dog us for being steeped in our past, but they just lament the fact that they don’t have such a storied history as the Raiders! Few teams do…

Where do you live? I lived at 1056 Termino for about 12 years; rented a little house off the corner of 10th and Termino while attending Long Beach State, and working at the West Marine in Long Beach just off 2nd.

My folks both still live in Lakewood. My Dad used to own the Rustlers, a little bar off Carson and Paramount on one of the Lakewood/LB borders. My brother and nephew still live not far from Long Beach State, along with a lifetime of friends! A few Raiders fans!

Moved up to Oxnard about two or so years ago.

My Grampa loved football and got me watching games with him and drinking beer when I was 3. My favorite players were George Blanda and Daryle Lamonica but all the Raiders were awesome. In ‘67, there were no teams that could compete with Oakland except Namath’s and Lombardi’s.