Fact; Chiefs fans love to hate those dastardly Oakland Raiders….
How venomous is it? There’s even a Wikipedia page on the subject. No kidding.
"The Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders of the National Football League are considered to have one of professional football’s most bitter rivalries," it begins.
The teams first met in 1960, but "the rivalry did not become so apparent until the Kansas City Athletics baseball team moved to Oakland, California in 1967," Wikipedia adds. "The move was met with considerable distaste in the Kansas City area and much of the frustration was put upon the Raiders when they played in Kansas City."
Then there was the infamous 1970 game where Raiders defensive end Ben Davidson speared Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson with his helmet. Chiefs star Otis Taylor went after Davidson and a bench-clearing brawl ensued.
What Chiefs fan hasn’t trafficked in banter about how rude and crude Oakland fans are, how nasty the city is?
"That’s all bullshit," says former Streetside, Pennylane & Pitch owner Hal Brody who now lives in Oakland. "Oakland is a great community. It has the best weather in the world – it’s a great place. People (in Kansas City) don’t know what they’re missing."
As for the team, the fans and the town’s bad rep,totally bogus, Brody says.
"It’s the bad press it gets," Brody says. "I’ve been to several Raiders games and it’s not nearly as bad as people say it is. It’s not as bad as people like to portray it."
Starting with the arbiters of political correctness at daily newspapers…
"People like to play up the bad news," Brody says. "The daily paper in Oakland – all they write about practically is crime."
Sounds like the TV news hounds here.
All of which added up to Brody’s turning down an offer to buy the Pitch back from Village Voice Media at a steep discount from what he sold the unprofitable newsweekly to VVM for in 1999.
"You’ll never get me back there," Brody says of the Cowtown. "Not that you want me, anyway. There’s more opportunity here and the weather’s better."
Woah!
What a revealing story! One man claims it’s not true, so myth, consider thyself dispelled!
Can you call Brody back and have him dispel anything that’s in the Warren Commission’s report on JFK’s assassination? I’m sure the National Archives would be very interested in what he has to say.
Wikipedia
Quoting an unreferenced statement in Wikipedia doesn’t hold much water for any argument,
A picture paints a thousand words
Al Davis and Lamar Hunt staring each other down… THAT is the essence of where and since when this rivalry began. Those two men as different as the two cities, Oakland & Kansas City. One ruthless & the other toothless in a football sense if we’re to judge relative success each over their lifetimes, each; said the essence rivalries beginnings more so than any differences cities per se.
Davis arrived in Oakland 1963, merely forged the greatest turnaround a pro football team had been seen up to that point and maybe even since, all considered. Began depths a 1-13 1962 season so comical they were coached by two eyes- correction ‘guys’ – one of whom was named Marty Feldman, no relation to the – ‘you go right & I’ll go left’ bulging-eyed comedian. From there the ugly-duckling Raiders (originally set to be called the Senors, speaking of apropos siesta-snooze team name the pre-Al years), climbed to an 10-4 record under the burgeoning ‘just win baby’ tough guy from Brooklyn’s Flatbush by way San Diego, Baltimore and the US Army.
Hunt has a story well known to KC adherents such as those frequent this blog. Suffice to say there aren’t any flat-bushes in Texas & unlike Davis slicked hair, only oil Lamar ever combed was same fertile ground his daddy sr. blazed his original black gold texas tea trail for. Jr.’s only hard stops ‘tween birthplace & final resting was the bank. Just as his preference for number of shoes owned (“you can only wear one pair at a time anyway” if the quote attributed to him is accurate), Texans/Chiefs owner also had but a single Head Coach in 15 years. Think of him as oilt to Davis water, ne’er the twain to meet, in any compatible sense at any.
Even aft Davis became AFL Commissioner in 1966 (a temporary pause between Head Coach & his next stop became Managing General Partner nee partial Ownership), he butted heads with Hunt. Davis brought the NFL to it’s knees or would have by signing several top-tier players from Rozelle’s league to contracts with AFL teams, this in response to the NFL breaking their gentleman’s agreement to not sign the other league’s guys, AFL latter case. Upshot of all of it was a series of meetings between Hunt and the Dallas Cowboy’s Tex Schramm, known as the most powerful GM in the NFL, occurred (without Al Davis knowledge – a tough task). This resulted in the AFL/NFL merger agreement which not only called for the demise the AFL but also it’s Commissioner in lieu of one man, NFL’s Pete Rozelle (who had been aware of the Hunt/Schramm meetings, unlike Davis.) It isn’t too terribly hard to grasp how Davis might have felt betrayed by Hunt et al.
And so here in its earliest stages you have the nascent essence, beginnings of the OAK vs KC rivalry. To betrayal add the natural swing of things – football games being played – and away we go. It is interesting to note that between the time merger agreement June 1966 and the end of the AFL its final game January 1970, OAK & KC played 8 regular season games: the Raiders won 6 of them. Scores like OAK 41 KC 6 in a 1968 playoff game & KC 48 OAK 0 a 1967 exhibition game just augments the degree of bitter intensity had been born.
The teams also played 2 post season games, splitting them. Raiders went to post-season 3 consecutive years 1967-1969 & also to a Superbowl. KC went to just one post season those three years & to one Superbowl. KC won their Superbowl, OAK lost theirs. Alas, just as all good things (AFL as KC football success, any) have to end, so too OAK’s Superbowl drought. Raiders have won 3 Superbowls since and played in a 4th, while Hunt Sr. has been replaced by his own Jr. Kansas City; together as individually, they still haven’t managed well enough to locate the path to the Superbowl, winning or wrong exit ramp.
Out in Oakland, Al Davis is nearing age 82 and many say he is ‘too old’ and that ‘the game has passed him by’. If so, et tu nee what of KC? Raiders look to be on the upswing again – they merely blistered the Chiefs twice in 2010 including a 31-10 obliteration in KC of the schedule farce post season bound charlatans call KC home. That’s some funny ****, KC fans talking bad ’bout Al/his Raiders.
This author has been a Chiefs fan since they came to KC in 1963. I grew up their, and there is where my football heart still resides, Fact is however I love the game more so, always have… reason why I loved the AFL more than the Chiefs or the NFL, and loved the Raiders second best next to my Chiefs, followed by the Chargers and then the rest the AFL. It wasn’t easy to love the Raiders when they were beating my Chiefs to a pulp in the late 1960’s, but it was impossible not to respect their greatness. Had I not been Chiefs fan first and foremost, would have been a Raiders. I am also an Dodgers fan, but was thrilled for the Giants last season when they won it all.
Yes, it does happen; uneven allegiances and no tolerance for overhype (OAK the former, KC 2010 season the latter.) I suspect the rivalry KC and OAK is not what it was – will never be – but then, game today too is no match for what once was. Lockout 2011…sigh.
Buellshit!
Ask Hal if he has the balls to wear Chiefs gear into the lower level of the Raider Dome during a Raiders-Chiefs game. I’ll buy the jersey and the tix. I’ll also escort him and call 911 on his behalf when he gets whacked in the head with a battery or grade 9 weight bearing bolt. There are nice parts of Oakland. They are called SAN FRANCISCO!
I’d spend a month in Afghanistan in a US Military uniform before I’d wear Chiefs gear in the Raider Dome.
Went to a game in Oakland with a friend of mine and his 11 year old son 3 years ago. They wore Chiefs gear, I didn’t. One of the NICEST things that was said to us as we walked into the stadium was, “hey little boy just ’cause your daddy’s a pussy doesn’t mean you have to be”.
Hell, even the lesbians in Oakland are tough. There’s a lesbo para-military group their called Militia Etheridge.
Ditto
Hey, try going to a Chiefs game…
Not exactly a refuge for the thin of skin!
How about quoting a longtime Kansas Citian who has been living in Oakland for several years? The Wikipedia references are pretty much common knowledge – nothing really new there. What’s most interesting about that is that a Wiki page on the topic even exists!
Arrowhead is for Gerbil Lovers
I’ve received and dished out my share of verbal abuse at Arrowhead over the years. Only got in one altercation. Chiefs fans are Justin Bieber. Raiders fans are Zack Wylde. No comparison between the two environments.
Name one gang anywhere on the face of the earth that wears Chiefs gear. Accoring to the FBI over two dozen gangs in the US alone associate themselves in some way with the Raiders logo or colors.
Hal can have Oakland. Just a matter of time before the travelling earthquake show comes back to the Bay Area. It’s not an if, it’s a when.
Smartman is right-
When De Rigueur for home town attendance at your local NFL team, includes fuckin chain mail and Darth Vader Helmets, you might be a Raider asshole.
When assault, battery (And Batteries) and exsanguination are expected activites when attending your local NFL team’s home games, your just another Raider asshole.
If your laying down suppressing fire, to cover your families return to the car after the game, you might be surrounded by Oakland Raider assholes.
If your sowing stitches into your 7 year old’s scalp, cause he was clonked in the head with a pint bottle of Ten High, and, you had the foresight to actually bring needles thread and a first aid kit, you are an asshole, and you are surrounded by Oakland Raider assholes.
If your riding “dirty” to the Raiders game, with your kids in the car and dressed like an Orc outta Lord of the fuckin Rings, your an asshole Raider fan.
If you think, for some fuckin reason, that Jason Campbell is a good QB, you are a dumbass Oakland Raider fan.
Herne, seriously, Hal fuckin Brody? He could hide in plain sight with a tu tu and fish net stockings at the Raider’s Gane. No one would see him. Its not like he is so filled with testosterone that if girls just LOOK at his picture, they grow a beards.
If for some reason, you ever actually had to go to a game in Oakland, first of all, no one who didn’t have a death wish would wear Chiefs Gear, and after the game, you would have to go straight home, shower, and scrape an iron loofah across your whole body, to get the scum off.
Hal Brody…jeeze…
Ground Chuck
BIBLICALLY BRILLIANT CHUCK. HILARIOUS! BEEN LAUGHING MY ASS OFF FOR TEN MINUTES.
Been there…Hal’s full of shit…
Went to a Chiefs – Raiders game in their early 90’s.
It was the weirdest atmosphere I’ve experienced. Crowd was 70% Hispanic. Probably 75% under 40 and not a lot of women, maybe 30%. A lot of drinking and boasting.
Also, never thought I’d see bare breasted men screaming “F” bombs from suites but they do out there.
And no I didn’t wear Chiefs apparel. It would not have been a good idea!
F OAK
“If your riding “dirty” to the Raiders game, with your kids in the car and dressed like an Orc outta Lord of the fuckin Rings, your an asshole Raider fan.” Classic
Kerouac good post………..Though Chiefs are a much better franchise than Oakland geeeez man Oakland is awful…Al Davis couldn’t shine Lamar’s shoes. And thats a fact Jack!
🙂
🙂
Dodgers beat San Fran Fan into coma
for wearing San Fran gear to Dodgers Game. http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/news/story?id=6280485
I love LA as much as I love Oakland.
Some white boy in the wrong place at the wrong time, oh, shit, thats right, it was Dodger Stadium where he was jumped from behind by 3 guys, beaten kicked and rendered unconcious.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/05/giants-fan-beaten-bryan-stow_n_845214.html?ir=Sports
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Touchdown! That’s a really cool way of ptuitng it!
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