Professional football is replete with dynasties, but there hasn't ever been a team as colorful, crazy or nasty as John Madden's Oakland Raiders of the 1970s -- football's equivalent of a forearm to the jugular.
Those Oakland teams brought a new level of dynamic football that fell short of becoming a dynasty, because the Raiders, for all of their success in the 1970s, only went to one Super Bowl, while the Dallas Cowboys played in five, the Pittsburgh Steelers in four, the Minnesota Vikings in three and the Miami Dolphins in two.
But Madden's Raiders presented a cast of characters that had no rival in the National Football League -- or any other league in any other sport. Raiders owner Al Davis and talent scout Ron Wolf assembled the likes of the Snake, the Mad Stork, the Assassin, the Tooz, the Governor, Dr. Death, Rooster, Foo and Mother Hubbard.
And all Madden had to do, successfully, as their head coach, was to get them to play together. And coach them he did, to seven American Football Conference title games, but with only one victory in 1976, the same season Madden earned his only Super Bowl championship ring -- a 32-14 victory over Minnesota.
Madden's Raiders resembled an NFL halfway house with a roster filled with rogues, rowdies and roustabouts. Playing those Raiders, you had to be ready for a fist fight, for they put the "m" in mayhem.
Author Peter Richmond followed those Raider teams while growing up on the East Coast.
He describes their body-bag style of play in "Badasses," his brand-new book published by HarperCollins.
It's a rollicking good read, filled with some of the NFL's signature moments -- the Immaculate Reception, the Holy Roller Play, the Sea of Hands Catch, Ghost to the Post -- and some of league's greatest and goofiest players. Those Raiders knew how to play, and how to party.
"It was a great time, and we'll always have it," said quarterback Ken "the Snake" Stabler. "It was the greatest team to play for. There was a love for each other. Everything fit from top to bottom. A great bunch of characters. A great band of personalities. You played for John. You played for Al. You played for a city. You played for each other. What else can a football player ask for? I loved being a part of it then, and I love it now."
What's wonderful about Richmond's book is that he didn't rely on old clippings to tell his bawdy tale of castoffs, deviants and hell raisers coming together, somehow, in championship form. He traveled the country to get their remembrances of the most unscripted, unforgettable decade in the Raiders' 50-year history.
Richmond heard the ribald stories of Ted "the Mad Stork" Hendricks, the late Jack "the Assassin" Tatum, Skip "Dr. Death" Thomas, Pete "Rooster" Banaszak and Phil "Foo" Villapiano. Marv "Mother" Hubbard and Dave "the Ghost" Casper refused to be interviewed, and John "the Tooz" Matuszak and Gene "the Governor" Upshaw passed away before Richmond had a chance to speak with them.
But the voices that were heard -- the author also interviewed Davis and Madden -- make this one of the best football books ever written. Possibly even the best, right alongside "Brian's Song." Only "Badasses" is exceedingly more juicy. And more classic, in the worldly mind of Pat Toomay, a Raiders defensive end in the 1970s.
"You have to go to the Greeks to get the appropriate conception," said Toomay. "The Greeks ... understood 'heroes' as being capable of anything ... quintessentially human behavior. Their heroes' nature was exceptional and ambivalent, even aberrant. Their heroes prove to be at once good and bad and accumulate contradictory attributes."
Madden's Raiders certainly were contradictory. Atkinson's elbow to the back of Steelers wide receiver Lynn Swann's helmet led to Pittsburgh coach Chuck Noll calling the Raiders a "criminal element" and the two teams winding up suing each other and facing off in a court of law.
Tatum's tackle of New England wide receiver Darryl Stingley -- a clean hit -- nevertheless led to Stingley's paralysis, and Madden's regular hospital visits to support Stingley and his family.
Then there was the night Villapiano was beaten up by the Hells Angels. The Raiders players were about to seek revenge against the feared motorcycle gang before Madden wisely intervened.
Madden was a Raiders assistant coach when Davis gambled and promoted him to head man in 1969. It didn't take long for Raiders players to realize that the personable Madden was, in the words of cornerback Willie Brown, "one of the guys," someone who talked to them about life and who established only three team rules.
"Be on time, pay attention and play like hell when I tell you to," Madden said. "Nothing else mattered. I always knew that the more rules you have, the easier they are to break. Things that aren't important, that have nothing to do with winning or losing, don't have to be a rule."
http://www.contracostatimes.com/raiders/ci_16209647
