It's official

[Forbiddenraider]

This had to happen. NFL is a money machine that rolls over everything. No one, not one owner in the league gives a fuck about the fans of Oakland. Not even the guy from the Dolphins who voted against the move. We are now top level. Up there where we always should have been with the Cowboys, Pats exc......I feel bad for the Oakland fans but teams move constantly and it doesn't matter where the Raiders play the fan base will follow. Let them cry in Oakland, they had 20 fucking years to do something. Too late.

[Marujo]

Very interesting article:

If move to Hollywood made Raiders go soft, what will Vegas do?
After a good start, things went south for Al Davis and his franchise in SoCal


Rod Martin played his college home games at the Los Angeles Coliseum, but confided to his boss after the 1981 season he wasn’t all that excited about going back home as a professional.

Owner Al Davis had moved the Raiders against the NFL’s wishes from Oakland to Los Angeles. Martin was a 12th-round draft pick in 1977 with more potential than power.

“I talked to Mr. Davis and told him, ‘I fell in love with the Oakland Raiders. I would like to play in Oakland,’ ” Martin said in a phone interview. “He said, ‘Well, son, I’m signing your checks in L.A.’ ”

The Raiders will move again in 2020 at the latest if all goes according to plan, this time to Las Vegas. The return to Oakland through 22 seasons has been mostly unsuccessful other than a Jon Gruden-fueled run from 2000 through 2002 and Jack Del Rio’s breakout 12-4 season in 2016. In retrospect, the Los Angeles years weren’t bad in terms of wins and losses. The Raiders were 118-82, a winning percentage of .590 that dwarfs the .429 percentage (151-201) in Oakland’s second phase but is short of the .650 (176-85-11) compiled when Davis arrived in 1963 through 1981.
The Los Angeles Raiders won a Super Bowl following the 1983 season and went to the playoffs seven times. But there was a suspicion the Raiders eventually went soft in Los Angeles and lost the mystique built up in blue-collar Oakland, winning just two of their last seven playoff games.

It’s a challenge the Raiders will face again once they reach their new home in the 24-hour bright lights of the Las Vegas strip.

Matt Millen, an inside linebacker who started his career in Oakland, believes Los Angeles changed the personality of the Raiders for the worse. Too much Hollywood glitz and glamour, not enough focus on football.


“I thought the attitude of Los Angeles just took over our team,” Millen told 95.7 The Game. “L.A., it’s kind of like a spell gets cast upon you. I used to say to the guys, ‘Don’t let the monster get you.’ And one by one, you’d watch ’em drop.”

Tom Flores, the former coach who won his first Super Bowl in Oakland following the 1980 season and his second in 1983 in Los Angeles, said the move south made for a dramatic change in environment. “You’re in Los Angeles. You’re in tinsel town,” Flores said. “All of a sudden you’ve got people doing stuff they would never do in Oakland. You’ve got to live with that.”
Flores is interested to see how it all plays out in Las Vegas.
“Los Angeles was something,” Flores said, “but Las Vegas is really something.”

Yet Flores attributes the Southern California fade to issues of football and personnel rather than the Los Angeles lifestyle. The Raiders whiffed on first-round draft picks in 1986 (defensive lineman Bob Buczkowski) and 1987 (tackle John Clay).

Jim Lachey, one of the top left tackles in the NFL, was dealt to Washington for quarterback Jay Schroeder in 1988. Once the Raiders had gotten all the mileage they could out of quarterback Jim Plunkett, they couldn’t find a replacement at football’s most important position. Marc Wilson, Schroeder, Steve Beuerlein and Todd Marinovich all had turns before the Raiders achieved a playoff berth in 1993 with Jeff Hostetler.

“I think the struggles after those good years shows that it’s hard to stay on top,” Flores said. “And we never did replace the quarterback. If you don’t replace a guy with a winning one, it’s hard to do . . . we got Schroeder for Lachey. Marinovich was a bust. It seems like we were down for years because we never settled the quarterback situation until we got Rich Gannon.”
Martin loves Oakland and intercepted three passes representing the city in the Super Bowl XV win over the Eagles. But he rejects the assertion that the change to Los Angeles eroded the Raiders in terms of reputation and quality of play.

“Mystique comes from what you do on the field,” Martin said. “We had a proud group of individuals.”

Another issue was that Davis fought with Los Angeles over stadium improvements just as he had with officials in Oakland. There were talks of relocation to Irwindale, Sacramento and a move back to Oakland that eventually materialized in 1995.

The Raiders could be counted on for stability and consistency during their first phase in Oakland, but have been restless and erratic in a year-to-year sense ever since.
“We can’t seem to find the trees for the forest,” defensive end Howie Long told the Los Angeles Times in 1989. “You can’t pay much attention to all of it, because when the man Al Davis says, `Go,’ You go. I’ve been here nine years and the one thing you get used to is being on the fence one way or the other. “I’ve been through 40 defensive linemen beside me, four defensive coordinators, two head coaches and two cities with this team. What’s new?”

By the the end of the 1994 season, their time in Southern California had run its course.

“All I know is we had to get out of L.A.,” wide receiver Tim Brown said. “It was something we needed to do. We thought we were coming to the perfect situation. It didn’t work out that way.”



http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/03/31/d ... ft-in-l-a/

[Forbiddenraider]

Cool article. I don't even worry about that mystique shit anymore that's been gone since the 80s & 70s. The mystique didn't do shit for us as we lost 12 games every year in 2000's. Players back then were a hand and stayed together that also helped with the mystique. Now players don't give a fuck about what came before them and it's all about the money. No one was "scared" to play us because of our history and mystique and they don't fear the guy dressed up like the Road Warriors either. We have finally come out of the 70s. I wish it was still the way it was in the 70s but unfortunately no one has much of an identity anymore.

[FreddieB25]

Aside from the 80's Hollywood underachieving Raiders...Marc Wilson QB sucked and Plunkett was getting old than Al Davis dog housing Marcus Allen demoralized the team as he was our MVP for about three years...we should of been able to get Elway in 83' Rozelle blocked it...we should of gone to the Super bowl in 1982 and 1985 and either 1984 or 1986 if these realities didn't exist...we were pound for pound the best team in the afc from 1982 to 1986 and only went to the SB once and won after the 83' season...we had great pass rush great corners but a running back and tight end receiving type offense..Plunk and Branch were getting old and were still a very good team.

[FreddieB25]

Derek Carr is the first Raider Qb that we drafted since Stabler in 68' to be worth a damn. Look what Stabler did for us after he took over for LaMonica in 73' and now what Carr is capable of...aside from Gannon's few years in Oakland this franchise hasn't had a QB to get us to the next level since Stabler was traded in 80'...Plunk did his part to get us 2 lombardi's but he was never elite...Al Davis got spoiled by that slick Plunkett payoff and never tried to get a real bonafied franchise QB through the draft for 3 decades...Jamarcus Russell was Al's worst high pick ever and the worst #1 pick of all time....Al in his prime would have never taken Russell that high if at all..never!!!!

[Marujo]

We could get Calvin Johnson, Adrian Peterson or Joe Thomas with this #1 pick.

[FreddieB25]

We could get Calvin Johnson, Adrian Peterson or Joe Thomas with this #1 pick.

What? Calvin retired and what a trade? We could of drafted Calvin Johnson and Aaron Rodgers last decade if Al wasn't smoking crack..