I made five Champions Forever documentaries…
Two were on Ali. and one of the ones I was working on the mid 1990’s was a NFL Quarterbacks film. The top five Quarterbacks of the previous era.
All of our films featured the best of their generation. I was supposed to interview all five quarterbacks for the film. It was the era that put the NFL over Major League Baseball as America’s game. And those quarterbacks were Len Dawson, Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach, Joe Namath and of course Kenny ‘THE SNAKE’ Stabler.
Stabler died of cancer yesterday at age 69.
It hit me kinda hard.
I only met Stabler once for an interview at Tattoo’s restaurant and nightclub in Beverly Hills. It was during the 90’s and he agreed to meet about being in my movie.
I was excited to meet him. I’d hated him as a kid watching the Raiders and Stabler crush our Chiefs most of the time. In fact, Stabler admitted to me, “The Chiefs and us were the two best teams of the mid 60’s to the early 70’s. You guys shoulda been in more Super Bowls. I might have had a bit to do with that one.”
He smiled.
It was Kenny and the Raiders who ended the Chiefs run as maybe the best overall team in the NFL and AFL in 1972. It happened right here in KC when we lost what was then the longest game in pro football history. Overtime when the Raiders beat us. The Chiefs have never been as good since. I was there. Boy did that one hurt.
Stabler told me he’d been drunk in the huddle more times than he could count.
“Hell I didn’t remember winning some of those games or throwing a few of those bombs that landed. I was smashed. Guys in the huddle could smell it on me, but shit they didn’t care as long as we won and I did my part.”
Boy did he.
Remember the “Holy Roller” against the Chargers?
Stabler fumbled on purpose at the game’s end to give the Raiders a chance to win. He fumbled forward into the end zone, the Raiders recovered and won the game. It forced new rules on fumbles.
The one that hurt Stabler was ‘The Immaculate Reception’ with the Steelers and Franco Harris. The ball was slapped into the air by the Raiders for what looked like a game winner and fell into the hands of Steelers running back Harris who took it into the end zone for the win.
Kenny won the Super Bowl Xl, was Alabama’s best quarterback (along with Joe Namath) and was considered by almost everyone as one of the all time best quarterbacks of his era and best left handed passer ever.
Yet no hall of fame for Stabler? What a crime.
He told me in that interview that the best receivers he ever saw were Fred Biletnikoff and Otis Taylor of the Chiefs. Taylor is also not in the hall of fame. Another injustice.
I hated to see us lose to the SNAKE, but he was an impressive man.
We spent the day drinking and talking. One of my better spent days in Hollywood. The SNAKE was the Man. We never got to do the quarterback movie for Champions Forever.
Guess I was Snake bit!
“I made five Champions Forever documentaries…
Two were on Ali.”
Why is your name nowhere on the credits of these?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097042/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm
http://www.amazon.com/Champions-Forever-World-Heavyweight-Champs/dp/B00004S899
I did.
You are right what’s your name I made it up. All those stories about it in Sports Ill. USA today on google about me producing them and interviewing Ali all made up…You are a major moron…google the movies and see the titles and MY NAME IS FIRST UP ON PRODUCEERS…true in the original Champions Forever in 1989 I was an assoc. producer but I bought them out and redid it and re edited the movie for new release…on the second one I was always lead producer…HATERS ARE MY BIGGEST FANS. Like you a major moron.
Amazon.com sells the movies you might read about me and the films on that one whats your name…THANKS HATERS LIKE YOU ARE MY BIGGEST FANS. PS IF YOU BOUGHT THE MOVIE IN A STORE OR ONLINE MY NAME IS ALL OVER THE PIC AND THE BOX….BUT YOU ARE WHAT YOU ARE.
I JUST RECHECKED hater….amazon.com Ali the Definitive Addition the last one we did…”Craig Glazer interviews Ali…producers Craig Glazer/Ron Hamady..I’ll wait for your “I’m sorry Craig” but that won’t happen will it.
IMDB.com international movie data base has many of my credits not all including two of the Champions Forever Latin Legends and Champions Forever Ali…but thanks for asking…
Grew up in the bay area a Raiders fan. Don’t remember anyone calling the snake Kenny.
P.S. I JUST DID…that’s his name. I think I mentioned SNAKE IN THE HEADLINE AND IN THE STORY….MY BAD BUT AGAIN..HATERS LIKE YOU ARE MY BIGGEST FANS.
Boy, these people really get under your skin…
I think Bob broke Craig.
glaze…wrong again…
Alabama never won a national championship with stabler as qb……they went
11-0 but were voted third in his junior year…..
the rest of this article continues to show you nothing about sports again.
he was not rated the second best qb at Alabama behnd Namath….where did you
get that?
there have been more successful qbs at Alabama than stabler….
and he wasn’t even involved in the immaculate reception…he was on te sidelines…
so come on glaze..
stop pretending to be harry carry or jack buck.
go back to woodside hotties!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
That longest game the Chiefs lost in 1972 was to the Dolphins, not the Raiders. I remember it well, it broke my heart.
Whoops, my mistake, it was Christmas Day 1971 and it’s still the longest game ever.
Not me! The only person more upset than you was our mother, for having Christmas dinner delayed at our home in Miami!
And it was ’71 not ’72.
Sorry, your correction hadn’t posted yet.
But I don’t take back not being upset!!!
wrong again glaze….it was dolphins…
hearne please fact check this guy….
becoming horrible at remembering things…
please have him checked out….
he’s a fun writer but never right.
right it was Dolphins and I was there, Raiders rocked KC in Oakland 48 zip…in a playoff game…yikes, but the longest game was Dolphins in 72 at KC Jan missed a couple short field goals…heart breaker.
I love that you were there but thought we played that game against the Raiders in ’72 and not the Dolphins in ’71. You were probably at Woodstock when that dude got stabbed during the set by the Stones, too. Clown.
“The Chiefs and us were the two best teams of the mid 60’s to the early 70’s. You guys shoulda been in more Super Bowls. I might have had a bit to do with that one.”
– Stabler’s memory (double entendre) , as many old (or dead) players (and fans same), isn’t what it was/should be: he didn’t become OAK’s regular starting QB till game 4 in 1973, said result Daryle Lamonica’s injuries/aging & resultant downturn performance. Too, by ’73, the Chiefs were already relics in free-fall, no better than medicore. So, no, Stabler did not stop the the Chiefs from going anywhere; they were already also-rans headed for nowhere. Kerouac would still have preferred the Chiefs face Stabler rather than Lamonica each player’s prime; Daryle/his offense during the Chiefs ‘glory years’ remains the scariest that KC ever faced, then/any year to date, just ahead of Namath and the Jets.
K I see your point ‘THE MAD BOMBER’ Raider was the man…our greatest win maybe ever was beating Oakland in 69 at Oakland headed to Super Bowl 4….Aaron Brown destroyed Daryle in that game. We had just won on the road against the Jets and Joe….Dawson was awesome….Chiefs peeked in 69…no question. We should have had more Super Bowls…you are right by 73 we were old.
Well CG, Stabler was definitely good & everyone has an opinion – most go with Stabler as Raiders best QB ever (I suppose) due him managing be a part OAK’s Superbowl team, their first ever.
He was more Starr than Namath; Lamonica was exact opposite.
Still recall Lamonica/others dissing Dawson/KC (and in essence, Stabler’s future game too) – “I’d rather throw the ball downfield 5 times & complete one for 5o yards than throw 5 yard passes dink & dunk down the field.” Guess when you’re the best team in pro football three years running, which OAK was 1967-1969 Kerouac/several others opinions, yet can’t win a Championship, sour grapes ‘may’ be a part the response.
Go deep was the Raiders philosophy under Al Davis until Stabler ‘small ball’ came along (comparison) & managed to change Davis mind. Fact – Stabler had Cliff Branch just as Dawson had Taylor, so each QB did go downfield at times, just not as often Lamonica, Namath, John Hadl and their like an earlier time.
Completion % was high for Dawson, Starr & Stabler; whether or not that proves anything (those guys combined winning multiple Championships while Lamonica and Namath combined managed but one), debatable. Still, Stabler won just one, Dawson a couple (’62 & ’69), and Starr 5 in 8 years, barely missed out on another in ’60. Marino none, Montana several another example ‘smarts’ and patience being greater than going for the downs regularly. (the Cheattriots Brady I do not put in the conversation, simply because he has played an era conducive rules giving advantage offenses, which every QB had aft 1977 when the bump rule only 5 yards downfield went into effect.
Of interest, Stabler shared something in common with Dawson – he sat on the bench the first several years of his career aft being drafted by OAK in 1968. He actually played 1968 and 1969 with the Spokane Shockers the Continental Football League… wasn’t until 1970 that he managed to throw his first pass, giving him 7 passes in 3 years combined. Dawson threw all of 17 passes in his first 3 years, 30 in four and 45 in half a decade before getting his chance with Chiefs/Texans.
So, guys like Dawson & Unitas a few years before Len, Stabler & latter-day Kurt Warner made the most of opportunity once they finally got said. I just enjoyed (translated: scared ****less) being on the edge of my seat when Lamonica was at QB for OAK more so than by Stabler or even Dawson with the Chiefs; used to wish Len would throw the ball deep – or more, period – to Taylor, but that wasn’t Stram’s philosophy, which I’ll always believe was an bit of a mistake, Championships ‘not won’ with the talent KC had the measure, just as Stabler alluded re: KC (also biggest reason Taylor isn’t in the Hall of Fame & likely never will be, which is a shame because he was second to none if you watched him play.)
Ehh, football century 21 leaves me wanting to find time machine go back yesterday…
🙂
“. . . best left handed passer ever.”
Better than Steve Young?
As Madden said “If I had one drive left to win in any game it would be with Stabler” this was before Young…and I think Stabler was better than Young…myself…different era … Hey Ken did it drunk!
But you said, “best left-handed passer EVER”. Now you want to talk about “different eras” after being told that Steve Young was also left-handed?
You know, I’m not questioning whether Stabler was a great quarterback for the seven seasons or so he started. His record speaks for itself.
But when we try to rank any quarterback against QBs of any era, we tend to give them perhaps more credit/blame than they deserve for the accomplishments of the entire team, or lack thereof.
For example, I still wonder how good Peyton and Eli’s daddy would have been on a team that was any good at all.
And speaking of “eras”, you seem to think Dawson, Namath, Bradshaw, Staubach and Stabler were in the same era.
Well, Dawson was done and Namath was a shell of himself by the time the last three really got going. It’s like saying Willie Mays and Rod Carew were of the same era because their careers overlapped by a couple of years.
“Hey Ken did it drunk!”
Yeah, silly Steve Young. He thought enough of himself, his organization and his teammates to show up sober.
That surely has to count against him.
never said it did…he was great…so was the SNAKE…two different men…two different lives…clearly Young’s was better as far as most are concerned…
Ya know, Glazer, I’m sure you think Stabler was better than Young, and yes you do have a right to that opinion.
But, as much as you claim to be an “expert” on sports, your offerings here are always so full of factual errors that they render your opinions to be worth about as much as the next drunk sitting on the next bar stool.
^^^This
Dirtbag Craig Glazer
Writes Obituary
First word is “I”
glaze….stop writing about sports…your memory is way off on every comment.
gi ve us the report from woodside and leave it at that.
any other topic brings out people who correct your mistakes. And they
are way off…from comparing players to making predictions.
Hopefully we won’t suffer thru more of your bashing of the royals and the chiefs
which you have shown in the past.
royals get to alcs…hopefully don’t play Houston…and if they beat
Houston we could have another I 70 series.
chiefs 10-6 pr 11-5….and chris conneally from Georgia is rookie of the year.
So, where does Jim Plunkett rank with the great Raider quarterbacks? Correct me if I’m wrong here, but he has more Super Bowl rings than any Raider quarterback ever, right?
Come on, guys, ease up on ol’ Craig. He’s trying to make his way in the world just like the rest of us. So he’s obnoxious but you know he’s obnoxious. Just roll your eyes and move on.
Haters are my biggest fans…I think the point of the story was my one day with the SNAKE…HOW MANY DID YOU SPEND WITH THE GUY? Thanks. The only error was in saying the Raiders won that Xmas game, hell I was there and was so used to the Raiders burning us I even got it messed up…a sports editor would surely have caught that mistake…this is a ‘fun’ site we don’t have that here…so there are more mistakes than say the STAR…happens…other than that everything else was dead on…so HATERS CALM DOWN.