Clark Kristine Setting - Cheating Is Encouraged: a Hard-Nosed History of the 1970s Raiders

Copyright 2015 by Mike Siani and Kristine Setting Clark

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Sports Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Sports Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Sports Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

Sports Publishing is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.sportspubbooks.com.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Tom Lau

Cover photo credit: AP Images

Print ISBN: 978-1-61321-820-4

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-61321-868-6

Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to James Garner, friend, number one Raider fan, and the original Maverick.

And to those Oakland Raiders who have departed this world far too soon, but who left an indelible imprint on professional football.

Photo courtesy of LB Archives

The Autumn Wind is a Pirate

Blustering in from sea

With a rollicking song

He sweeps along

Swaggering voicelessly

His face is weather-beaten

He wears a hooded sash

With a silver hat about his head

And a bristling, black mustache.

He growls as he storms the country

A villain big and bold and the trees all shake and quiver and quake as he robs them of their gold.

The autumn wind is a raider pyre raging just for fun.

Hell knock you round and upside down and laugh when hes conquered and won.

Born and bred by the Bay in Oakland, California, the Raiders played their own special brand of football. While the defense struck with the hammer of Thor, the offense flew on the wings of Mercury with a succession of rough-and-tumble running backs.

The Oakland Raiders were warriors cut from a different cloth... renegades with faces only a mother could love. The banner they flythe skull and crossbonesis a clue to their personality. Show no mercy, take no prisoners. This is a team that revels in its ominous image.

For over fifty years the specter of Silver and Black has forged a reputation as gatekeepers of an evil empirea realm where might makes right.

John Facenda, The Voice of NFL Films

CONTENTS

PREFACE

STRAIGHT FROM THE MOUTHS of the legends of the silver and black, a book appropriately entitled Cheating Is Encouraged captures the many famousas well as infamousstories from the last team to play outlaw football. Regardless if you loved them or hated them, the Oakland Raiders of the 70s were an amusing cast of outlaws, misfits, and other anomalies that made up one of the greatest pro football teams of their era.

For the Raiders, it was a time when professional team sports such as football, baseball, and basketball were considered blue-collar forms of entertainmentthe NFL leading the pack. It was the Raidersand Oakland alonewho personified a blue-collar town with their aggressive style of play.

Gridiron characters such as Kenny (Snake) Stabler, Willie Brown, Phil Foo Villapiano, Jim Pops Otto, Jack The Assassin Tatum, Jim Otto, Art Shell, George The Hit Man Atkinson, Skip Dr. Death Thomas, Fred Biletnikoff, Ted The Stork Hendricks, Bob Boomer Brown, Daryle The Mad Bomber Lamonica, head coaches John Madden and Tom Flores, and many others chronicle the infamous barroom explosions, on- and off-the-field exploits, away game adventures, and party-hard attitudes that are reflected within the teams intimidating and glorified mix of rebels, renegades, and masterminds of the game.

The Raiders roster consisted of a collection of misfits and rebelssome with behavioral issues such as Ben Davidson and John Tooz Matuszak, and castoffs like the aging George Blanda and semi-pro player Otis Sistrunk, who were passed over or disregarded by other NFL teams.

To say that this group of degenerates had attitude would be considered a gross understatement. They were the Oakland Raiders, the silver and black, and Al Daviss dream of Just Win, Baby.

The legacy of the Oakland Raiders has always been Commitment to Excellence, but the legacy of the teams behavior has always been on the cutting edge. For example:

When receivers were allowed to use Stickum, Fred Biletnikoff used so much of it that he had to have the other players in the huddle pry his fingers apart.

Bob Brown got his point across to Willie Brown when he pulled out his gun and riddled his mattress with bullets... while Willie was still on it!

Cheating Is Encouraged defines an era that can only be considered as the last glory days of real football played by real men; a game where hurt players kept playing and the injury known as turf toe had yet to be defined.

So belly up to the bar, gents, and read about the good ol days of Raiders football. It is as close as most of us will ever get to sitting in the locker room, opening a few cool ones, and listening to these gridiron greats talk about the famous and infamous legendary wars and warriors of Oaklands glory years.

FIRST HALF: 19701974

AL DAVIS

THE DEFIANT OWNER

AL DAVIS WAS ONCE asked how he would like to be remembered. Without hesitation he responded, If there was anything weve ever done that I am particularly proud of, I would have to say it is the greatness of the Raidersto take a professional football team and give it a distinct characteristic that is different from all others.

Commitment to excellencethe greatest players and coachesthe great games we played inthe flame that would burn brightest here is the will to win.

Even as a young boy, Davis had dreams of greatness.

I had a dream that I someday I would build the finest organization in professional sports. I had a lot of thoughts on how I would do it. I had the inspiration of two great organizations when I was growing up. The Yankees personified to me the size of the players, power, the home run and intimidation and fear. The Dodgers under Branch Rickey were completely different in my mind. They represented speed, they represented development of players, the Dodgers way of playing the game. I always thought that someone intelligent could take all the great qualities of both, put them together, and use them.

As everyone is well aware, Al Davis was known for his creative slogans. We are all familiar with his Commitment to Excellence and Just Win, Baby! Raiders safety George Atkinson had this to say about Davis.

Al had more slogans than an ad agency. That was just his thing. He didnt have a marketing group. Those were his phrases that he came up with and believed in.

Davis may have been a walking ad agency, but Matt Millen says that it went way beyond just words. Daviss wardrobe was, in itself, a marketing opportunity.

His whole world was pretty black and white when it came to fashion. It was silver and black or white and black and that was it. We were told he was colorblind and thats what we always understood it to be.