Loving a Bunch of Renegades

To baby boomers going through their teens and college years in the ’70s, or at least to the sports fanatics among us, the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League loomed large in the imagination.  

   Whether you loved them as the ultimate renegades or hated them as cheaters and bullies, you could not be neutral, and you knew they were different — brutal, elemental in their black and silver uniforms, colorful in character, coached by the larger-than-life John Madden, and perpetual contenders.

   Millerton author and sportswriter Peter Richmond has written a satisfyingly nostalgic account of this band of misfits in his appropriately titled “Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden’s Oakland Raiders.â€�  Rich in detail about the players’ unbridled off-field antics and eccentricities, “Badassesâ€� ultimately comes down to football. It is structured around the building of the team from perpetual second-banana to ultimate Super Bowl champion in 1976. And it is written by someone who has an unapologetic and thoroughgoing love and knowledge of the game.  

   I talked to Richmond recently over coffee at Irving Farm.

FB: What made you want to write a book about the Oakland Raiders?

PR: When I was a student at Yale in the ’70s, I was a total rebel; hair down to here, angry at everyone and everything. And I loved football. I always watched the Sunday games on TV, and the Raiders always seemed to be on.  All their players had long hair or huge afros or amazing sideburns; they wore eye-black; they looked like Hell’s Angels or Black Panthers.  I immediately identified with them.  I fell in love with a team that was totally like me — a bunch of renegades.  Their vibe fit me perfectly.

   When I wrote my last book with Frank Gifford, we interviewed every surviving player of the 1958 [Giants-Colts NFL Championship] game. They all loved the game, they made no money, and they all have these great stories to tell about how they loved their teammates.  The Raiders were the last team with one foot back in that era. They didn’t play for the fame, just for the love of each other. They loved being the rebels, loved their image, and loved Oakland.

FB: Even those of us who followed and feared the team back in the day didn’t realize the extent of their extracurricular shenanigans.

PR: Until I started the book, I didn’t know that behind the scenes they were even crazier than they were on the field. They pushed the edge in every way without ever jeopardizing the franchise. They never did anything dangerous. Almost all of the players I spoke with Continued from page 9

were proud of the games but were happiest

talking about all the fun they had — innocent outlaw stuff.

    And they didn’t want to talk about themselves; they would talk about how quarterback Ken Stabler [“Snakeâ€�] was cool under fire, or some other player.  Today that kind of talk is a cliché.

FB: And Coach Madden?

PR: He didn’t like the idea that I was writing about the great coach of a great but wild team. He thought it would imply that he wasn’t a great coach. But he was the best coach in the NFL for 10 years. And he was great because he gave his players space: no curfew, and his only rules were, “Don’t get on the police blotter� and “Show up ready to play on Sunday.�

FB: You write that the Raiders were the last of their kind; we could never again have a team like that.  Why not?

PR: Because of free agency. The money. Madison Avenue and TV. My guys played together for eight or 10 years; now no one is ever with the same team more than two or three years. Half the Raiders’ offensive line was making $22,000 apiece. Today’s players will say they love each other, but they’re playing for their next contract.

   The Raiders’ story is like “Brigadoonâ€�  — a magic land where football was football. We see the game in a different way now.

FB: What next?

PR: I’m collaborating on a book and lyrics for a musical about the NFL.  It’s a story of a contemporary team, but the cast of characters owes a lot to the old Raiders.

Badasses by Peter Richmond is available at Oblong Books and Music in Millerton and other regional bookstores.