Post by TheShadow on Dec 13, 2008 22:25:17 GMT -5
www.projo.com
By J. Donalds
It had been a trying week for Mark van Eeghen, who decided to relax by watching some football.
And — how lucky was this? — that Thursday night’s game featured his old team, the Oakland Raiders.
The famed — or, some would say, infamous — Silver and Black, for whom he’d played eight seasons and won two Super Bowls, was taking on one of their archrivals, the Chargers, in San Diego.
Except the game turned out to be anything but relaxing for van Eeghen. Instead, it was frustrating. And irritating. And sad, too, as the Raiders fell behind, 27-7, by halftime, enroute to a 34-7 shellacking.
“I shut it off at halftime,” he said. “I couldn’t help it. I was watching my old team play a team I’d never liked and, the more I watched, the more disgusted I felt. I went downstairs and spent 45 minutes riding my exercise bike. I needed to change my mental outlook.”
Although he grew up in Cranston, and played the final two seasons of his 10-year, NFL career in New England, and now has a son-in-law who plays for the Patriots, van Eeghen remains, in his heart, a Raider.
How could he be anything but, having played with the likes of Kenny “Snake” Stabler, Art Shell, Gene Upshaw, Fred Biletnikoff, Cliff Branch, Jack Tatum, Jim Plunkett, the wild-and-crazy “Tooz” —John Matuzsak, Lester Hayes, Matt Millen, Willie Brown, Dave Casper, Otis Sistrunk — said to have graduated from the “University of Mars.” and the “Mad Stork,” Ted Hendricks?
“We had some colorful characters,” van Eeghen said.
The team’s motto, as decreed by maverick owner Al Davis — who was as colorful a character as any of his players — was “Just win, baby!” And the Raiders did – playing in the AFC championship game five years in a row (1973-77) and winning the Super Bowl in 1976, when John Madden was the coach, and 1980, under Tom Flores.
For five straight seasons, from 1976-80, van Eeghen was Oakland’s leading rusher. He ran for more than 1,000 yards three years in a row (1976-78) and in ’77 was second in the league, behind Walter Payton, with a career-high 1,273 rushing yards.
So it’s understandable that it bothers him now to see how far the Raiders have fallen.
“To see my former team in the tank, with no promise of recovery any time soon — I’ll use the word ‘sad,’ ” van Eeghen said.
What’s also sad, although van Eeghen wouldn’t say it, is how Davis — the driving, and also polarizing, creative genius behind the success of the Raiders — has slipped as he’s grown older.
“I loved playing for Mr. Davis,” van Eeghen said. “People have all kinds of different opinions about him, but if you were part of the Raider family and busted your hump to do what it took to win, he was a wonderful owner. He was very loyal to his players. All he wanted to do was win. If you did that, everything was fine.”
Things are far from fine these days in Oakland, where the Raiders haven’t had a winning season since they won the AFC championship in 2002, but were routed in Super Bowl XXXVII by Tampa Bay, 48-21.
The Bucs were coached by Jon Gruden, who’d taken the Raiders to the Super Bowl just two years earlier. Davis essentially traded Gruden to Tampa Bay after the 2001 season — which ended with the Raiders losing to the Patriots in the controversial “tuck rule” game in the AFC semifinals in Foxboro — for two first-round draft choices, two second-round picks, and $8 million.
Since Gruden, the Raiders have gone through five coaches in just seven years, including two this season, when, after four games, offensive line coach Tom Cable replaced Lane Kiffin. At 3-10 heading into this afternoon’s game against the Patriots, the once-proud Raiders have won the embarrassing total of just 22 games since their last Super Bowl appearance nearly six years ago, while losing a hugely-disappointing 71.
“Mr. Davis’ stamp on the franchise hasn’t changed,” van Eeghen said. “He’s still involved in evaluating talent, and with the coaches. But maybe the NFL in the 21st century has changed. There seems to be a disconnect now between ownership, the coaches and the players.”
While van Eeghen always will feel a deep connection to the Raiders, he’ll be rooting for New England today because his youngest daughter, Amber, is married to Patriots center Dan Koppen.
“I want to see them win because of Dan,” he said. “I’m getting into the games now like I haven’t since I retired. Two weeks ago, before the game in Miami, I had my chips and salsa set up in front of the television an hour before kickoff. I was as anxious as a 15-year-old for the game to start.”
Today’s game has particular significance for van Eeghen.
“It’s a good feeling,” he said, “to know that Dan is playing on the same field I played on, in the same stadium where I experienced so many great moments.”
While van Eeghen very much wants to see the injury-riddled but still battling Patriots return to the playoffs, he also wants his former team to return to prominence in the near future.
“I want to see the Raiders be relevant again,” he said, “because it would be good for the league. They’re like the Yankees in baseball — whether you love the Raiders or hate the Raiders, the game is better when they’re good.”