Add John Madden to the list of those hurting from the Raiders relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas.
The Hall of Fame coached helped bring the Raiders their first Super Bowl in 1977, going on to a long career as a video TV analyst and video game pioneer.
“When they got a vote of 31-1, I was really shocked and I was surprised not only that it happened, but how quickly that it happened,” Madden told Sirius XM of the move.
Obviously, this isn’t the first time the Raiders have left Oakland. Not five years after Madden retired from coaching the Raiders, they left for Los Angeles. For Madden, this move feels a lot different than that one.
“It really gets you because of the finality of it,” said Madden. “When they moved before, that was after I got out and I was in broadcasting and I wasn’t that much of a part of it, but we had a stadium in Oakland that was relevant. And so, ‘OK, Oakland may lose the Raiders, but we’ll get another team,’ because that was the way it was working back then.
“With the stadium now, when they move out, that’s going to be torn down and it’s going to be a high-rise or some doggone thing and there’ll be no more Oakland Raiders, there’ll be no more history of the Oakland Raiders. And that really bothers me. Not just me personally, but all the Raiders fans over all those years and all the great players and great games. Just, boom, it goes away.
“We don’t have a Hall of Fame, we don’t have a museum — there’s nothing to leave there. And maybe this is just me being oversensitive, but doggone it, if you’re going to go, that’s really tough, but leave us something. Leave us something here in Oakland, please.”
Madden was a major part of many historic and iconic moments in Oakland and he doesn’t want to see them left in the wake when the team pulls up anchor and sails off to the desert.
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