Passion Back For Raiders … Wednesday Cup O’Chiefs
September 16, 2009 - Bob Gretz |
“I’ve had a great dislike for the Raiders.”
The statement above was made by:
1. a.) Marty Schottenheimer
2. b.) Carl Peterson
3. c.) Gunther Cunningham
4. d.) Todd Haley
5. e.) All of the above
We found out this week that the correct answer is (e.)
Yes, the game is on with the “Hated Raiders” and Todd Haley has thrown his fuel on the fire.
“Growing up in the household that I grew up in the Steelers-Raiders rivalry was important,” Haley said. “Once you have it I don’t think you ever lose it. I
t’s not like some point in my life I said, ‘Hey, I like these guys, they’re cool’.”
While Dick Vermeil and Herm Edwards downplayed the emotional elements of the 50-season rivalry with the Raiders, it sounds like Haley is more along the lines of Marty/Carl/Gun, where things are personal when it involves the silver and black.
“I’ve made it clear to the team that everybody in this building needs to have an equal dislike,” Haley said. “We’ve got to start re-establishing the great home-field advantage we have.
The roots of Haley’s dislike of Al Davis’ club have nothing to do with the Chiefs, and everything to do with the Steelers and their battles with the Raiders during the 1970s. Along with the Miami Dolphins, the Steelers and Raiders ruled the decade of the 70s and Pittsburgh and Oakland played a number of memorable regular-season and post-season games, much as the Chiefs and Raiders did in the 1960s.
Of course it means even more when the roof over your head is courtesy of employment with the Steelers, as it was with Haley and his father Dick, who was one of Pittsburgh’s top personnel men. Todd Haley was five years old when Franco Harris grabbed a deflected pass off his shoe tops and beat the Raiders in a first-round game in the playoffs that has forever since been known as the Immaculate Reception. It was the Raiders who knocked the Steelers out of the playoffs in 1973, and it was Pittsburgh that beat Oakland I n the 1974-75 AFC Championship Games, while the Raiders took the 1976 game.
There were more than just the games that fanned the flames between Steelers and Raiders. Oakland TE Bob Moore had his head cracked open – reportedly by a Pittsburgh policeman – outside the team’s hotel in downtown Pittsburgh before the ‘72 game. It was Raiders S George Atkinson who laid out WR Lynn Swann with a chop to his head as he came across the field. It was Steelers coach Chuck Noll who after that hit, called the Raiders the NFL’s “criminal element.” It was Atkinson who sued Noll for slander and the lawsuit was actually heard in a Bay Area court rom.
Over a span of eight years (1972-80) the Raiders and Steelers played 10 times, with half of those games coming in the playoffs. Oakland had a 6-4 edge in those games, although Pittsburgh was 3-2 in the post-season.
The Chiefs and Raiders rivalry has diminished somewhat because they haven’t played each other with anything on the line for some time. The last meaningful game as far as the standings were concerned was the final game of the 1999 season when Jon Gruden brought the Raiders to Arrowhead on January 2, 2000 and beat the Chiefs 41-30 in overtime. That knocked Kansas City out of the playoffs in Cunningham’s first year as head coach.
Over the 50-season history between these teams, the Chiefs lead the series 53-45-2, including the playoffs. For the Chiefs there was that remarkable run during the Peterson/Schottenheimer Era when the red and gold dominated the silver and black, going 18-3 from 1989 through 1998.
Then there were the six games in 1968-69, where the Raiders won four, but couldn’t beat the Chiefs in the AFL Championship Game in ‘69 for the trip to the fourth Super Bowl.
“I’m very aware of that around here and the history of it,” Haley said of the Chiefs-Raiders rivalry. “I’ve paid attention to it over the years and understand there are a lot of things that have gone on and fanned the fire. I think that’s what makes the NFL great, what makes the conferences great and the divisions great.
“The more you keep them together like the NFL has been able to do the more you have some of this. I just think it adds to it and makes it more exciting.”
In the last two seasons, the series has been split each year, with the Chiefs losing at home and winning in Oakland.
The fastest way to return the Chiefs-Raiders to its rightful place among the NFL’s best rivalries is to start playing some games that mean something again. In the last two seasons, the Raiders are 9-23, while the Chiefs are 6-26.