It's Not About The Game

For the first time in a long time the West Side Clubhouse buffet wasn't the highlight of a Raider home game.

Finally a Raider win. At home. With Art Shell as the coach. John Madden was honored before the game for making yet another Raider in the NFL Hall of Fame.

That's all good stuff to a guy who grew up in the East Bay.

It was by any account and definitely mine, a great time to be a kid into sports in the 70's around here. The A's were in the playoffs every Fall, then when their season wrapped up the Raiders took over and were always in the running for the post season. Sometimes they didn't make it and it ended in heartbreak, but sometimes we got to play pretty deep in the post season.

HBO did a good job with their special Rebels Of Oakland: The A's, the Raiders, the 70's that showed the wild times of the East Bay and the sports teams. If you get a chance to see it check it out.

I was a lucky kid that got to go to lots of A's games since my dad bought season tickets for 5 years, including all the World series years of 72, 73, and 74. The owner was an eccentric guy. Before home games he would bring out a mule "Charlie O" so kids could pet it, and there was "Hot Pants Day" and all kinds of crazy promotions.

The Raiders and their fans were just legendary. I didn't go to Raider home games, but would always watch them on tv with my dad and his friends. When you are a kid seeing your dad having fun is one of the coolest things. Most of the time we won, most of the time we all had fun.

This didn't mean we didn't like the 49ers or Giants. In fact we were fans of all the teams. Sometimes dad would have 2 radios on listening to both baseball teams at once. The 49ers has some lean years, but we pulled for Brodie and the rest of the guys. I am still a fan of all 4 teams today, but since I live in the same zip code as the Network Associates Coliseum, I go to Raider games.

Of course when they left to go to LA everyone was heartbroken. For all those years some of us would still gather at Ricky's in San Leandro to watch our team playing in the wrong Coliseum. The 49ers then had one of the best teams ever, and the Bay Area was in love with the team at Candlestick. Definitely count me and my dad in that group. The Bengals 49ers Superbowl was one of the best ever.

When the Raiders announced they would come back my dad was in the hospital having some sketchy surgery. I came in and told him that the Raiders were coming back, he thought I was making up a story to make him feel better. He said "Oh come on, don't give me that bull crap." I tried to tell him no it is true but he wouldn't believe me until the next day when I brought in the paper to show him.

He said "are you going to get tickets?" I said of course, and you're going with me. He made it out ok, and for 5 years he and I went to every home game. I even picked him up at his assisted living apartment a few times and took him in his wheelchair to a few games. He was the first in our group to yell "Sit Down" if some guy stood a little too long after a play. The guy would whip around to see who was yelling at him and there would be this white haired 80 year old guy giving him the evil eye!

So this year the A's made the playoffs, and the Raiders had one of our favorite players and former coaches as the new head coach. Was Art Shell the best choice for the coach? I don't know, but I like it. It is that doing something different, show of loyalty thing that is part of being a Raider fan and that Al Davis does when he hires guys like head coaches. Coaches like Art Shell and John Madden.

Sunday was a beautiful afternoon. Warm and sunny, a sold out stadium, and John Madden giving a great speech about Raiders players, and fans. You get the feeling that John really meant it because you get the feeling that he'd be an awful liar.

"This is so special when after all these years, as Al was saying, you can walk through that tunnel again, and walk out on this field again, where we played all those great games. I never thought it would happen. I never thought I'd walk through that tunnel again. I never thought I'd stand out here again."

"I'll never forget, every game was a sell-out and it was the greatest time of my life. And when I went into the hall of fame, I said I'd take a lot of people, and I also take the greatest fans ever," said Madden.

The Game is why we were all there, but for many of us in the 40 something age and up, it isn't all about the game.

Al Davis Presents John Madden 2006 NFL Hall Of Fame




John Madden's Hall Of Fame speech