JuicesFlowing
11-30-2008, 07:09 AM
Sunday Morning Cup O’Chiefs
November 30, 2008 - Bob Gretz |
No Comments
From Millbrae, California
When the Chiefs and Raiders meet on Sunday afternoon at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum they will play the 100th game that mattered in the history of this storied rivalry.
They have played 96 times in the regular season and three times in the playoffs and they have combined for some of the greatest moments in pro football history.
But right now, guys like Dawson and Lamonica, Biletnikoff and Taylor, Bell and Hendricks, Rudnay and Otto wouldn’t recognize what’s happening on the field.
Can you really call it a rivalry when one team is 3-8 and the other is 1-10?
Can it really be another chapter in a storied history of games when one team is 1-19 in the last 20 games, while the other is 4-16 in the same time frame?
Since the Raiders made the Super Bowl at the end of the 2002 season, they have an NFL worst record of 22-69. The Chiefs in that same time-frame are now 44-47.
The Chiefs against the Raiders used to mean something. It mattered. That’s not the case right now and hasn’t been the case for some time. In fact, one would probably have to go back to the Y2K Bowl on January 2, 2000 when the Raiders beat the Chiefs 41-38 in overtime at Arrowhead Stadium. That victory allowed Oakland to finish .500 on the season and knocked Kansas City out of the playoffs.
How bad is this match up? CBS-TV is forced to broadcast the game because they carry the AFC. They’ve assigned their least active and talented broadcast crew in Bill Macatee and Steve Beuerlein. Kansas City and northern California will be the only areas of the country that see this game, and again that comes only because CBS must provide that coverage.
There will be little or no carryover from the previous 99 games when these teams play on Sunday. The only game that really matters is the 99th meeting, back in September when the Raiders rolled into Arrowhead and handed the Chiefs a 23-8 loss. In that game, the Raiders embarrassed the Chiefs by running for 300 yards. And, there wasn’t a single fight, which tells you there isn’t much emotion left in this battle.
Rivalries are built on two things: geography and playing games of importance. The Chiefs and Raiders have never been about geography. They have always been about playing games of importance.
Until now.
November 30, 2008 - Bob Gretz |
No Comments
From Millbrae, California
When the Chiefs and Raiders meet on Sunday afternoon at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum they will play the 100th game that mattered in the history of this storied rivalry.
They have played 96 times in the regular season and three times in the playoffs and they have combined for some of the greatest moments in pro football history.
But right now, guys like Dawson and Lamonica, Biletnikoff and Taylor, Bell and Hendricks, Rudnay and Otto wouldn’t recognize what’s happening on the field.
Can you really call it a rivalry when one team is 3-8 and the other is 1-10?
Can it really be another chapter in a storied history of games when one team is 1-19 in the last 20 games, while the other is 4-16 in the same time frame?
Since the Raiders made the Super Bowl at the end of the 2002 season, they have an NFL worst record of 22-69. The Chiefs in that same time-frame are now 44-47.
The Chiefs against the Raiders used to mean something. It mattered. That’s not the case right now and hasn’t been the case for some time. In fact, one would probably have to go back to the Y2K Bowl on January 2, 2000 when the Raiders beat the Chiefs 41-38 in overtime at Arrowhead Stadium. That victory allowed Oakland to finish .500 on the season and knocked Kansas City out of the playoffs.
How bad is this match up? CBS-TV is forced to broadcast the game because they carry the AFC. They’ve assigned their least active and talented broadcast crew in Bill Macatee and Steve Beuerlein. Kansas City and northern California will be the only areas of the country that see this game, and again that comes only because CBS must provide that coverage.
There will be little or no carryover from the previous 99 games when these teams play on Sunday. The only game that really matters is the 99th meeting, back in September when the Raiders rolled into Arrowhead and handed the Chiefs a 23-8 loss. In that game, the Raiders embarrassed the Chiefs by running for 300 yards. And, there wasn’t a single fight, which tells you there isn’t much emotion left in this battle.
Rivalries are built on two things: geography and playing games of importance. The Chiefs and Raiders have never been about geography. They have always been about playing games of importance.
Until now.