Post by TheShadow on Feb 18, 2006 23:11:21 GMT -5
www.postchronicle.com
by M. Centanni
The Raiders and the Chiefs have proven that maintaining a mutual
hatred through four decades is not impossible.
I'm here to tell you that the Kansas City Chiefs still care enough to
hate the Oakland Raiders.
One thing is for sure. Each has vastly different ways of expressing
its disdain for each other, but it's something neither team can hide. Nor
does either team even try.
The Chiefs are the only team in the league with a winning record
against the Raiders (10 or more contests)
Kansas City's blueprint for success against the Raiders is not hard to
follow. Control the clock with an effective rushing attack, get solid, if
not spectacular quarterback play, and don't beat yourself, especially with
turnovers. Expect the ground to be littered with yellow flags when these
two teams meet.
Since these two teams began playing each other in 1960, the Raiders
have gone through 16 head coaches and the Chiefs 10. But the intensity of
this rivalry hasn't waned.
During the 90's the Chiefs approached the game like a college football
team preparing to play its archrival. Marty Schottenheimer, now the HC of
the Chargers, often delivered emotional, tear-stained sermons to his players
during the week leading up to the game.
At the edge of the practice field sat a "Raiders bag." As each player,
even kickers and punters, leave the field, they hit it.
Marty started it and now it's a tradition... Schottenheimer might hate
the Raiders more than he loved his own teams.
In Kansas City, Raider-hater parties have been a tradition since the
late '60s.
"It's something special. It's not just media hype," Chiefs guard Will
Shields said. "You can sense it with coaches and players. Then you get out
into the community, and you realize what a huge game this is for both
cities."
It's nice to know that tradition still counts for something in
professional football. And since the Raiders regained its geographical
equilibrium some years back ( Raiders being in Oakland ) the old days seem
even more relevant.
What days they were.. (sigh) particularly those from 1966-70.
The Chiefs and Raiders represented the American Football League three
of the first four Super Bowls, years in which the two clubs suited up no
fewer than 11 future Hall of Famers.
"We knew we had to go through Oakland to win the championship, and
they knew they had to go through Kansas City," said former Chiefs coach Hank
Stram. "That made it a very bitter rivalry."
Jim Otto remembers those years well. The Raiders usually won when Otto
was playing center, but he seldom worked as hard for his money as he did
against the Chiefs.
"I can remember knowing that I had to block Willie Lanier, or I had
Buck Buchanan and Curley Culp right over my nose, beating on me," Otto said.
"I'd get done blocking one Hall of Famer and there would be another one. It
was a battle, no two ways about it."
He never made the Hall of Fame, but few players fit the renegade image
of the Raiders as thoroughly as big Ben Davidson, their mustachioed
6-foot-8, 270-pound defensive end.
"Those were my favorite games," Davidson said. "I always likened them
to a heavyweight fight. You knew you were going to get beat up, but it was
fun. We needed the Chiefs. We wouldn't have been as good without them."
From 1966 through 1970 -- the period in which their peaks
intersected -- Oakland and Kansas City met 12 times in the regular season
and playoffs. The Raiders held an 8-3-1 edge, but the Chiefs won the most
historically significant of those matchups.
In the 1969 AFL title game before a record crowd of 54,544 at the
Oakland Coliseum, Kansas City beat the Raiders 17-7. The Raiders had beaten
the Chiefs twice during the regular season and were expected to represent
the AFL in Super Bowl IV against the NFL champion Minnesota Vikings.
"All the Raiders came to the Coliseum carrying their luggage," Stram
said. "They were packed and ready to go to New Orleans right after the
game."
It was the Chiefs who went to New Orleans, where they stunned the
Vikings 23-7 in one of pro football's all-time great upsets. In hindsight,
it wasn't really an upset at all -- just one final example of the NFL
underestimating the upstart AFL.
"There's no question the Raiders would have beaten the Vikings, too,"
Dawson said. "They were a similar team to us, and they would have dominated
the Vikings defensively."
Though the Raiders would go on to win three Super Bowl titles, Otto
never captured the big prize, retiring after the 1974 season. That 1969 loss
to the Chiefs was one of the toughest of his Hall of Fame career, and Otto
paid for it when he told a visiting reporter afterward that the best team
hadn't won.
The next morning's headline ensured that never again would Otto walk
onto the field in Kansas City without getting spit on.
"Kansas City people are very, very loyal to their players and their
team," said Otto, who now lives in Auburn. "Very avid. Very similar to our
people."
Obviously one of the most stand out encounters was when The Raiders
visited Municipal Stadium in Kansas City on Nov. 1, 1970, eager to avenge
their loss in the AFL championship game. The Chiefs were up to the
challenge, however, and led 17-14 when Dawson scrambled for a first down to
the Raiders' 29-yard line late in the fourth quarter.
Davidson speared Dawson after he had fallen to the turf, at which
point Chiefs wide receiver Otis Taylor sprinted in and punched the huge
defensive end. A bench-clearing brawl ensued.
"We had the kind of team that didn't back down from anybody," said
Lanier, the Hall of Fame linebacker for the Chiefs. "If they wanted to
intimidate us, we could intimidate as well as they could. Our team was too
big and too good to intimidate."
Perhaps, but Taylor would have been better off turning the other
cheek. He was thrown out of the game, but that wasn't the worst of it.
Referee Bob Finley called offsetting penalties against Taylor and
Davidson -- and then nullified Dawson's long run.
"Today, it would have been a dead ball foul with offsetting penalties,
and we'd have had the first down," Dawson said. "The Raiders were out of
timeouts, and I could have taken a knee and killed the clock."
But the Chiefs wound up having to punt, and Daryle Lamonica quickly
completed 4 of 5 passes. George Blanda's game-tying 49-yard field goal with
eight seconds left barely cleared the crossbar and the leaping hand of
Morris Stroud, Kansas City's 6-foot-10 tight end, who nearly swatted the
ball away.
At the advanced age of 43, Blanda rallied the Raiders to an
unforgettable succession of last-second wins that season, both as a
quarterback and kicker. Davidson, meanwhile, solidified his reputation as
one of the dirtiest players ever.
"What went through my mind was, maybe I can break Lenny Dawson's ribs
and he won't be able to play next week," Davidson recalled with a devilish
snort. "Maybe they'll lose and we'll be back in first place."
Rather than take offense to Davidson's cheap shot, Dawson expected
nothing less.
"Just because the play is over doesn't mean it's over," Dawson said.
"When you play the Raiders, you expect something like that to happen."
Davidson remembers lining up against Kansas City's outstanding
offensive tackle, Jim Tyrer, and exchanging pleasantries before and after
each meeting.
"He'd come up to the ball for the first play and say, 'Hi, Ben.' I'd
say, 'Hi, Jim.' Then we bent down and went at it," Davidson said. "After the
game, we'd shake hands and say, 'See you in a couple of weeks.'"