Teams Las Vegas Raiders - The Black Hole

[Exe Gesis]

Doug Williams almost a Raider?

June, 26, 2014

By Paul Gutierrez | ESPN.com

I caught part of a replay of Super Bowl XXII the other day on NFL Network, and it was the start of the third quarter between the Washington Redskins and the Denver Broncos when announcer Al Michaels said something that caught my attention.

It actually made me pause the DVR, hit rewind and play again so I could hear Michaels one more time. And then another.

Sure, there had been rumors that Al Davis had been enamored with quarterback Doug Williams. But in the third quarter of that Super Bowl, after Williams had essentially won the game for Washington with an epic second quarter that featured five touchdowns, Michaels told the tale.


AP Photo/Amy Sancetta

The Raiders and Redskins reportedly discussed a swap for quarterback Doug Williams before the 1987 season.

He reported that Williams had been ticketed to the then-Los Angeles Raiders the Monday before the NFL’s 1987 regular season was to begin. Then-Washington coach Joe Gibbs had even told Williams he was on his way to the Raiders.

But then, according to Michaels, the Raiders balked at Washington’s price -- a first-round draft pick, or a very good player.

Now, we’ve already heard the tales of John Elway coming so close to being a Raider, and how the Raiders should have drafted Dan Marino in that same 1983 draft after the purported draft-day trade to land Elway fell through. And while the Williams-to-the-Raiders story might not have that same intrigue as either Elway or Marino wearing Silver and Black, it is interesting nonetheless.

Especially when you consider what Williams accomplished later that strike-torn season, and when you realize who the Raiders instead used that first-round pick on in the 1983 draft.

Williams, who had been the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ starting quarterback from 1978 through 1982 and had helped author three playoff appearances for them, was also a pioneer as an African American quarterback, following in the footsteps of James Harris and Joe Gilliam.

And we know that Davis looked beyond skin tone when it came to players he believed could play --Davis selected QB Eldridge Dickey in the first round of the 1968 draft -- and Williams had the big arm Davis was always in search of.

But after a contract dispute ended his time in Tampa Bay, Williams played two seasons in the USFL before resurfacing in Washington in 1986 as Jay Schroeder's backup.

Williams had not started an NFL game since Jan. 9, 1983, a playoff loss to the Dallas Cowboys, so yeah, you could imagine the Raiders not wanting to give up a first-rounder for him less than a week before the 1987 season.

Still, the Raiders were relatively unsettled under center entering that season as Jim Plunkett had retired and Marc Wilson and Rusty Hilger were the returners.

But even as the Raiders got off to a 3-0 start, the wheels quickly fell off, thanks in part to the strike, which cancelled one week of games and led to three weeks of replacement player games. The Raiders finished 5-10, their worst record since going 1-13 in 1962, the year before Davis arrived in Oakland. And two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Tom Flores resigned following the season.

Would Williams have saved the season and steadied the Raiders' ship?

Meanwhile, in Washington, Williams still had to bide his time. Sure, he relieved Schroeder a few times in 1987 and even started two regular-season games, but he did not become Washington’s starter for good until there was 6:51 remaining in the third quarter of its regular-season finale against Minnesota.

Williams, a huge team favorite, led Washington on its playoff run, upsetting the Chicago Bears in the divisional round and then upending the Vikings in the NFC title game.

Then came Super Sunday, in which he threw all four of his touchdown passes in the historic second quarter and passed for a then-Super Bowl record 340 yards in Washington’s 42-10 victory over Elway’s Broncos as Williams became the first African-American starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl, a feat not matched until Russell Wilson did it with the Seattle Seahawks this past February.

The trade that never happened between Oakland and Washington seemed to work out best for Washington, at least on the surface.

But if the Raiders had given up their first-rounder in 1988, they probably would have missed out on Tim Brown, though the Raiders did do some wheeling and dealing later to acquire three first-rounders, which they used on Brown, Terry McDaniel and Scott Davis.

So, with hindsight always being 20/20, do you essentially trade Doug Williams for Tim Brown if you’re the Raiders?

Whatever your answer, remember this: the Raiders and Washington would get together for a trade in 1988, a deal that would haunt the Raiders as they sent offensive tackle Jim Lachey to Washington for… wait for it … Schroeder.

Williams would only play 15 more games over the next two seasons before retiring, while Schroeder could not fully win over the hearts and minds of the Raiders' locker room in five seasons.

 

[Exe Gesis]

A’s claim they have a new lease, which could mean Raiders will have a new town
Posted by Mike Florio on June 26, 2014, 10:39 AM EDT

Getty Images
The travesty apparently will continue.

That’s the word Raiders owner Mark Davis has applied to the lingering reality that his team plays many of its games with a giant dirt baseball infield superimposed on what otherwise would be green grass made extra lush by the top-quality fertilizer flowing freely at times from the stadium bathrooms. The infield is there because the A’s share the venue, and the A’s announced Wednesday a 10-year agreement to keep playing there.

As explained by Matt O’Brien of the San Jose Mercury News, city and county officials found the announcement from A’s owner Lew Wolff and Commissioner Bud Selig surprising, since from the politicians’ perspective an agreement on a new lease has not yet been reached.

Davis may used a word other than “surprising” to characterize his thoughts on the matter.

While Davis typically says all the right things about sharing a stadium with the A’s (except for the “travesty” remark), a lease that would keep the A’s at the current stadium location for a decade complicates the football team’s search for a new home. Davis wants a stadium without a baseball infield, which means a stadium without a baseball team. With the A’s intending to stay at the O.co Coliseum for another 10 years and hoping for a new building at the same location, that’s one less place where the Raiders can develop a long-term home.

These events are happening at a time when the Raiders have the ability, if at least 23 other owners will let them, to pack up and move to a new city. The Raiders have a one-year lease, and Davis has repeatedly expressed frustration about the lack of progress toward a solution. If, as it appears, the A’s are securing the deal they want at a time the Raiders can’t (even though Oakland had hoped to do a deal with the Raiders first), don’t be shocked if Davis finally commences the launch sequence for a relocation to L.A. or Portland or anywhere that would embrace the Silver and Black with a state-of-the-art stadium consisting of 120-by-53 yards of continuous green.

 

[GeeCats07]

Because I don't live in Oakland it doesn't hurt as bad as it obviously would the fans who live there but it would be so weird for the team to move. Again. So much of the thing about the Raiders is the image. It feels so Oakland. I suppose it would be similar in LA, especially considering that we were there for a while, but I just don't know.
It's not like I (or anyone i'm sure) would give up on the team but to move cities just seems crazy in this day and age.

 

[andana]

Raiders are looking at another site in Oakland. There seems to be ongoing hassles with the City Council to get anything going.

 

[bomberbaird]

You would think having the team in Oakland would bring so much money into the area...to lose them again would be terrible

 

[GeeCats07]

Raiders are looking at another site in Oakland. There seems to be ongoing hassles with the City Council to get anything going.

They won't spring the money. We even found the perfect spot for a stadium that was and would have made a lot of sense but the council wouldn't help.

 

[andana]

The A's thought they had a 10 years lease but its not yet approved. City councillors boycotted the vote.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Sheesh

 

[volkerball]

Because I don't live in Oakland it doesn't hurt as bad as it obviously would the fans who live there but it would be so weird for the team to move. Again. So much of the thing about the Raiders is the image. It feels so Oakland. I suppose it would be similar in LA, especially considering that we were there for a while, but I just don't know.
It's not like I (or anyone i'm sure) would give up on the team but to move cities just seems crazy in this day and age.

It would be. LA is still a massive Raider city. They won a Super Bowl there, Bo Jackson played every game there, etc. One of the biggest issues when talking about teams like the Jaguars or Rams moving to LA is that the whole city is either migrants who support teams from their homes, or they're Raider fans. It would suck for them to leave Oakland, but it also sucks not having a Raider hall of fame and playing in one of the worst stadiums in the league. I think at this point, moving to LA is the best option, but they could also play at one of the college stadiums in the bay area, or lease the 49ers new stadium (which is decked out in red and gold and would be awful to see them play in) to buy time.

 

[Exe Gesis]

The NFL and LA council don't want us moving to LA due to gang elements. Theyd be OK Davis selling team so they could rebrand and move to LA. APPARENTLY that's the rumor. It could be Portland we move to. I'd like to think we'll get something done to stay in Oakland at the eleventh hour. The A's thing fell thru probably from Davis connections expressing dismay. Think the whole situation will be fluid and talked about all year with it appearing we'll go to LA then Portland then stay then back to LA etc

 

[Exe Gesis]

The NFL and LA council don't want us moving to LA due to gang elements. Theyd be OK Davis selling team so they could rebrand and move to LA. APPARENTLY that's the rumor. It could be Portland we move to. I'd like to think we'll get something done to stay in Oakland at the eleventh hour. The A's thing fell thru probably from Davis connections expressing dismay. Think the whole situation will be fluid and talked about all year with it appearing we'll go to LA then Portland then stay then back to LA etc

 

[bomberbaird]

Why cant they cover the diamond? You see them do it at Fenway for the soccer mid July...I would hate to play there

 

[volkerball]

Portland really has no chance at getting the team. It's a metropolitan population of 2 million as opposed to LA's 12, and it's the same size as San Antonio, which is in the biggest football state in the country. No businessman is going to buy the team and then ship them to a market where there might not even be interest in the team, AND doesn't have a stadium. Portlands city council probably wouldn't spring for one either. I also don't think Davis would sell his fathers team period, much less knowing that it meant the Raiders would be rebranded. He doesn't have the football smarts that his father had, but there's not much on this earth he loves more than the Raiders, that much is clear. I don't know about the NFL and LA not wanting it to happen (the NFL did stop scheduling Raiders/49ers preseason games because of violence) but it's either LA or Coliseum City imo. Either way, it's pretty likely the Raiders will be playing in the golden bears stadium for a while.

 

[volkerball]

I see the club is trying out lots of players as possible WR having forgotten to draft one. Do you think they ever look at basketball centres?. Someone over 7 foot who doesn't make it in the NBA. They wouldn't even need to speak English. Get them to take 10 steps thataway then look for a high pass. Most of those guys have good hands.

Don't know about centers, but basketball players do get brought into the league quite a bit as tight ends. Everyone is trying to find the next Jimmy Graham or Antonio Gates, so they get brought on as undrafted free agents or with late picks fairly often.

 

[andana]

I think my early favorite Raider rookie jersey to buy is DT Ellis or OG Jackson....if they even have them listed on Raiders Image shop. Usually only the very most popular couple players are available to buy which sucks.

There are some "heritage' Bo Jackson jerseys for sale. You could change the 34 for 66.

 

[Exe Gesis]

You smart

 

[andana]

The A's thought they had a 10 years lease but its not yet approved. City councillors boycotted the vote.

Its now been approved after the owner got the MLB boss to say the A's would move if the deal wasn't done. Now likely Raiders will move. Lease expires at season end.

 

[Exe Gesis]

 

[Exe Gesis]

Former Raiders player: Al Davis “would have loved” to move team to Las Vegas
Posted by Mike Wilkening on July 4, 2014, 1:35 PM EDT

Getty Images
The Raiders — in Las Vegas?

According to a former Raiders player, the late Al Davis was open to the idea.

In a story published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, former Raiders quarterback David Humm claimed Davis “would have loved to have moved the Raiders” to Las Vegas, with Humm claiming that Davis “told me that many times.”

Davis, who would have turned 85 on Friday, had birthday parties in Las Vegas, and a memorial service for him was held in the city two years ago.

In his remarks to the Review-Journal’s Norm Clarke, Humm opined that “there’s no way commissioner Pete Rozelle would have allowed” a Raiders move to Las Vegas “because of the sports books and gambling.”

Ah, yes, the gambling.

The NFL has never had a franchise in Las Vegas, and the odds probability of a team ever landing in what Danny Ocean dubbed “America’s Playground” is rather low, for the reasons Humm mentioned.

As long as there are people, there will be gambling, and as long as there is legalized gambling, there will be cities built around the business of gambling. And as sure as sunburn for those who forget their sunscreen and sign all of their drinks to their rooms at the Wynn and Mirage and the Cosmopolitan and Mandalay Bay, the Las Vegas Raiders will be just a summer daydream, save an unexpected change in NFL philosophy.

 

[Exe Gesis]

 

[Exe Gesis]

The Unbreakable Madden

25 Comments

John Madden currently serves as a safety advisor for the NFL, advising on rule changes to reduce concussion risk. (Getty Images)

PLEASANTON, Calif. -- It was January 1968, and the Oakland Raiders had just arrived in South Florida to prepare to play the AFL-NFL World Championship Game against the Green Bay Packers, in what would later be called Super Bowl II. A first-year linebacker coach settled into his Boca Raton hotel room and turned on the television. On the local news was a story about the participants' arrival at the airport. "Here come the Green Bay Packers," the reporter said, and John Madden watched as Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke and the rest filed off their plane into the Florida sunshine. "And now, the Oklahoma Raiders arrive," the reporter said.

Madden couldn't believe what he'd heard. "They didn't even know where the hell we were from," he said. "The guy called us the Ok-la-ho-ma Raiders. Really, they didn't even know what the hell to call the game. It was called the AFL-NFL championship game or some damn thing. Now, these teams have red carpets. Everyone is in suits, there are interviews and things going on. In those days, they didn't even know what state we were from."

It shows just how far the NFL has come. Madden has had a unique perspective on the growth of the league during the league's boom era, which, thanks to Madden, also could be called the Boom! era. No other person has been able to observe, understand, create and influence the history of the sport over that span like Madden had. Head coach. Broadcaster. Face of the iconic video game. And now, co-chairman of the NFL player safety advisory panel.

He was part of a league that appreciated a good head slap. He watched as the baton passed from Pete Rozelle to Paul Tagliabue to Roger Goodell. He saw the Raiders go from Oakland to Los Angeles, then back to Oakland, and saw five other teams pack up moving vans, too. He has delivered eulogies for George Blanda, Al Davis, Walter Payton, Pat Summerall and Gene Upshaw. "The man is an encyclopedia of modern football," said Rich McKay, who works closely with Madden as chairman of the competition committee.

Five years after he retired from broadcasting, Madden's body moves slowly, but his wit is quick and his mind sharp. You can see thousands of great stories behind his blue eyes, and if you stay with him, he'll give you the privilege of hearing some of them. "As football evolves, there aren't many people who know what it used to be," said the 78-year old who became a head coach at 32. He knows. He knows what it is now, too. And he knows where it's headed.

* * *

Madden was an assistant at San Diego State under Don Coryell, one of the most influential offensive minds in history. Joe Gibbs was on that staff, too, and Chuck Noll was an assistant for the Chargers at the time. While they were sharing the city, Madden and Noll became close friends.

While Madden was head coach of the Raiders, Tom Flores was on his staff, and Rams coach George Allen and Colts coach Don Shula became trusted allies. In the golden era of coaches, Madden faced future Hall of Famers Noll, Allen, Shula, Paul Brown, Weeb Ewbank, Sid Gillman, Bud Grant, Tom Landry, Marv Levy and Hank Stram. His record against them: 36-16-2.

Madden had a 103-32-7 career coaching record, including seven division titles, over 10 seasons with the Raiders. (Getty Images)

One of Madden's fondest memories is from Super Bowl II. "I was always a Vince Lombardi fan," he said. "My biggest thrill is, I looked up, and I was standing right across the field from Vince Lombardi in that game. I'm coaching, and he's coaching. I'm thinking, 'This is great. I'm coaching against Vince Lombardi.' Now, it's how many rings you got and all this stuff. In those days, it was, 'Wow, I'm coaching against Vince Lombardi.'"

In Madden's broadcasting days, he would arrive on a Thursday and visit each team on Friday. Inevitably, the team's head coach would invite Madden to watch practice, because he felt he could trust Madden and would like to hear his thoughts. No other broadcasters were doing this. Madden spent a lot of time talking offensive football with Bill Walsh, and he got to know Landry, who amazed him with his unflappable approach. He spent hours on a chalkboard with John McKay, whom he called a "damn good coach, a brilliant mind."

He also got to know the assistant coaches, among them Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick and Jon Gruden. Even today, Madden networks with coaches. He is the chairman of the coaches subcommittee to the competition committee, and he regularly discusses ideas to improve the game with committee members Tom Coughlin, John Harbaugh, Joe Philbin, Andy Reid, Ron Rivera and Mike Smith.

His coaching style was like none of theirs. When Madden became head coach of the Raiders in 1969, he had only three rules. (1) "Be on time." (2) "Pay attention." (3) "Play like hell when I tell you to." He didn't care about facial hair, wearing a suit on an airplane or forming neat lines for pregame stretching. "None of that stuff ever has won or lost a game," he said. Madden did not expect his players to practice with the same intensity with which they played. In those days, every practice was in pads, and wearing down over the course of a season was a concern. So he never asked for a great practice or hard hitting. He only demanded a great game. "You could only ask for it so many times," he said. "I only wanted to ask for it once a week."

In the era of Lombardi, Brown, Landry and Grant, Madden's approach was counterculture. In retrospect, he was perfect for the times and the team he was leading. Players who thrived under Madden such as Ken Stabler, John Matuszak and Ted Hendricks might not have achieved what they did in a different environment. They called him "Pinky." ("You could always tell he was mad when his face got red," Hendricks explained.)

Madden coached his practices much differently from how most coaches do it today. "If they made a mistake, it was, 'Run it again,'" he said. "I would get upset. 'If we don't get this straight, we'll get the cars lined up with lights on us, and we'll stay here all goddamn night until we get it right.' Now, they have scripts and plays. In football today, I would bet they run three times as many plays as I ran in practice. If I ran 100 plays, they run 300. That whole scripting thing drives me crazy. The coaches are out there looking at a script. Everyone has their head down. I think, how can you look down and teach? I was 'Use the right step, the right shoulder, no one jump offsides.' Those things were all important to me. So I guess I would have to up my pace in practice."

Game preparation has become more encompassing, in part because technology allows it. By the time Madden sits down at his desk in northern California on a Monday morning, he has access to every play from every game that was played on Sunday on his laptop. When he was coaching, Madden had access only to each opponent's previous two games, and that was on reel-to-reel.

Because game tape is so accessible and plays so easy to organize, Madden believes strategic trends are evolving more quickly than ever. "You used to compare things from year to year," he said. "Now, it's, Last week this became big. Towards the end of last season, all those bubble screens got bigger and bigger. People see what someone is doing successfully early in the season, and they are able to copy it and do it later in the season."

Today's coaches also benefit from instant replay. If replay had been in place in 1972, the most famous play in NFL history might not be so famous. Madden, who was on the sidelines for the Immaculate Reception, thinks the Franco Harris touchdown would have been overturned, and the Raiders subsequently would have beaten the Steelers. "It was a scoring play, so it would have been reviewed, and they would have seen the whole play," he said. "But they didn't see the play."

Madden says he can't figure out what 25 assistants do on modern staffs. He had six.

* * *

Madden often befriended his rival coaches, including Don Shula, whom he faced in the 1974 AFC playoffs. (Getty Images)

Eleven-year-old Jesse Madden plays quarterback on a flag football team. When John Madden watches his grandson's games, he sees an offense that is not unlike a lot of the offenses in the NFL -- no huddle, spread and tempo. "He's been in shotgun since he was eight," Madden said. "If he plays in high school and college, he will have been doing what they are doing now in the pros for 10 or 12 years. Whereas before, everything was new when a quarterback moved up a level. High school played one type of football. College played another type of football. And pro played yet another type. You'd have to adapt and adjust, every time you went up. Now they are all playing the same. That's how we're learning football today. That's why these quarterbacks can come in and play sooner than they ever had."

In Madden's day, the Sid Gillman style of offense ruled the NFL. Not so much anymore. "In the Sid Gillman offense, the medium routes were 17 yards," said Madden, who is a descendent from the Gillman tree. "Now the mediums, those patterns, are 10 yards. They don't run as many of those patterns as they used to, because they're getting rid of the ball quickly."

What has happened, in Madden's opinion, is that short, quick passes have become the solution to pass-protection problems. "It used to be, 'Block the blitz, and account for everyone,'" Madden said. "Now, it's, 'Don't account for anyone, and just throw it before they get there. Take care of the double-A gaps, don't let someone come free up the middle' -- and you can do that with shotgun."

The concept of getting rid of the ball quickly instead of trying to outnumber pass rushers gained traction in the 1980s, when Walsh had success with his West Coast offense. What we're seeing today isn't what Walsh had in mind. Madden gets a kick out of it when he hears people say the shotgun/spread attack that Peyton Manning uses in Denver is a West Coast offense. "Bill and I always joked about the shotgun," Madden said. "He once had this idea he was going to make the 49ers into a shotgun-passing team. Bill Walsh's shotgun. So he practices the whole preseason. Now he goes to Detroit, indoors, in the opener [in 1981]. And they can't hear. He had no silent count. They got beat. He didn't have any answers for it. So Bill Walsh never ran shotgun again. He ran it one time."

As the passing game has changed, so has the blocking game. Madden notes how often linemen use two point stances instead of three, and how they block with their hands instead of their shoulders. Even their shoulder pads have become much smaller, and they don't use arm pads anymore. But most linemen wear big gloves that look like they could be used in MMA training, because they help with punch.

The run game used to be about drive blocking and double teams. Now? "Most of the runs, you just direct a guy or redirect a guy," he said. "Or you try to cut a guy off, try to invite a guy off the field, knock him off and run inside of him."

The sweep was a popular run call in Madden's era that now is about as popular as bell-bottom pants. Madden said instead of having running backs trying to hit the eight or nine hole on a sweep, today's teams are calling for quick screen passes to wide receivers or tight ends, in the eight or nine hole. It's the same concept, but the emphasis is on athleticism and speed rather than brute force.

The Raiders' running game back in the day was set up by a blocking back and blocking tight end, two antiques today. "The fullback for all intents and purposes has been eliminated," Madden said. "Every team is basically one back. And the tight end as we knew it -- half a tackle, half a receiver and a real good blocker -- that isn't a position anymore. You take the tight end out of there and the fullback out of there, and all strong-side power running is done."

The devaluation of halfbacks has been a consequence. No halfbacks were taken in the first round of each of the last two drafts. "With the way the game is set up, I don't know that you can surround the back with enough weapons to make taking one high in the draft worthwhile anymore," Madden said.

* * *

When Madden coached, almost all players weighed less than 300 pounds, and if a player weighed more, everyone lied about it. "That's why, for years, we used to list Art Shell at 295 or 298," Madden said. "He was over 300, but you'd never put that on the program."

Shell was a team leader who did most things the right way, but the future Hall of Famer refused to step on a scale like the other players, according to Madden. "I could have fined him," Madden said. "But I figured, what am I going to do? Take his money? He's the best left tackle in the NFL. He's still going to play left tackle. So I said, 'I'll tell you what I'll do. If you walk away from me and I look between your legs and I can't see daylight, we're going to talk.'

"Then Larry Allen comes in at 330 [in 1994], and they've got pom-poms," Madden said. "So that was kind of the breaking point." Today, an offensive lineman who weighs less than 300 pounds has very little chance to make it in the NFL, or even in a major college program.

When Madden left coaching after the 1978 season, PEDs really had not yet altered the NFL landscape. "We dealt with greenies or speed or bennies," he said. "That was the accepted thing. The difference between those things and steroids is, those things didn't help you. They made you think you were playing better, but they didn't help you at all. But steroids helped. They made you bigger, stronger; they made you faster. They made you a better player, to the point [where] it wasn't fair if you were a non-steroid guy playing against a steroid guy." Painkillers were tamer in those days, too.

The Raiders of Madden's era were known as Hell's Angels in shoulder pads, and some of his players lived pretty hard. A team like that might be viewed quite differently today, but back then, most of the world winked and giggled at the bad boys. "I was before the drugs," Madden said. "The drug use came after I got out in football. I remember Bill Walsh, that drove him crazy, and Bill Parcells. They had no experience in it. That would have been in the '80s. That was the first big wave. To say I never had a player that took drugs, I don't know if that's true. But I don't remember cocaine. Maybe I was naïve. I don't think so. When I coached, it was alcohol. Guys would play and then go drink. They wouldn't have gotten caught up in the personal conduct policy, though, because cops didn't take them in. It was a different world."

Players got away with more on the field, too. After making a big play, no celebration was too outlandish. At one point, Madden criticized the league for outlawing certain player celebrations, but as the times have changed, so has Madden's opinion. "We're living in a different era now," he said. "The guy does it to get on SportsCenter. Then another guy sees it on SportsCenter, and he wants to do it. It becomes one-upsmanship, a contest. I like the celebrations and showing excitement, stuff that's real. But if you let it go too far, it's going to be all choreographed."

* * *

Madden has a simple office in Pleasanton, Calif., where he still breaks down game tape during the season. (Dan Pompei)

In 1978, after 10 years as head coach of the Raiders, Madden had had enough. He was suffering from panic attacks on plane trips, and he had a bleeding ulcer. His two boys quickly were growing into young men, and he felt he had been absent for too much of it. The ordeal of watching Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley become a quadriplegic, after a collision in an exhibition game, had taken a lot out of Madden. So he quit, and no team ever lured him out of retirement.

He found another passion in broadcasting, and he would become the A-team game analyst on four networks over his career. As the game he loved became more and more popular over the decades, so did Madden. The connection is not likely coincidental. Madden is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a coach, but he could have been inducted as an ambassador as well. A strong argument can be made that in its 94-year history, the league has never had a more powerful and effective representative.

He had a rare ability to project passion on telecasts while maintaining neutrality. Madden combined a deep understanding of the game with an everyman persona, connecting with viewers as easily as he had connected with players. It is perhaps his greatest gift. And so he sold football, even when he was selling lawn care products and screwdrivers. We all wanted to talk ball with him over a cold one, so he told us what kind of beer to drink.

An old offensive lineman, he would go on and on about the big uglies who were ignored by other broadcasters. "He helped glamorize offensive linemen," Anthony Munoz said in the 2011 book Madden, by Bryan Burwell. "We all love him for that."

Madden was the first broadcaster to study game tape, which he started doing to help his director and camera crew prepare for their shots. Even as a broadcaster, Madden was a teacher of the game, and all of us were students. In the early '80s Madden was teaching a class at Cal: "Football For Fans." In fact, he says, part of the reason he got involved developing a video game was to use it as a teaching tool.

In the 26 years since John Madden Football was released for Commodore and Apple II computers, the Madden games have sold more than 100 million units, making it the best-selling sports franchise in gaming history. More than 100 million fans have voted over the years for a favorite player to appear on the game's cover, too, with Richard Sherman beating out Cam Newton in this year's vote, as announced on Friday.

Madden NFL has impacted the game at a grass roots level. "Kids always played football in the street," Madden said. "'Run to the fire hydrant, and I'll throw it to you.' But they didn't know about blitzes and zone dogs, or Cover 3 and Cover 2, shotgun. They know all that stuff now." When the video game was being created, Madden lobbied for it to have the look of a televised game. Years later, he heard a Fox executive say he wanted football broadcasts to look more like the Madden game.

"Let me show you my deal back here," he said as he moves from his office to a 7,000-square-foot studio. On the wall are nine 63-inch television screens, surrounding one massive movie theater screen. Each screen is numbered. On Sundays during the football season, he has a different game playing on every screen, and if something interesting happens in one of them, he calls out for an assistant to switch that game to the big screen.

On NFL Sundays, Madden will invite around 100 people to watch the slate of games in his 7,000 square-foot studio. (Getty Images)

Up to 100 people will join him -- family members, friends, hangers on. Madden sits in a big chair in the front of the room. Only the serious football fans can sit in the front row. Farther back is a second row of chairs. In this area, people talk a little and watch a little. Way in the back, there is a third row with tables filled with food and drink, where people can socialize and kids can run around.

It's a place where football and Madden bring together people of all kinds, just as they've done on a national scale for decades. Here, the NFL's popularity is easy to understand. "It's pretty good television," Madden said. "Reality television has gotten so big where you can see things as they happen, see behind the scenes. The NFL was reality television before reality television. We all know people gamble on it, and this fantasy football is big. It's become the accepted thing to do to watch football on Sunday and Sunday night. There is nothing better. And it's free."

* * *

On many Friday afternoons during the season, Madden is on a conference call for the player safety advisory panel. No one watches more game tape than Madden, according to a league official, and he's usually bubbling with thoughts, exchanging ideas with NFL executives all week. He was the driving force behind the initiative to make all players wear knee pads and thigh pads last year. This year, he was behind the rule clarification that will prevent linemen from hitting other linemen in the face.

One of his missions is to make tackling safer, and that means taking the helmet out of the hit as much as possible. "We have to keep chopping away at that," Madden said. "That's the only piece of equipment they have that can be a weapon. I'd like to see the forearms, shoulders, arms and hands get back into tackling, hitting and blocking. It has to be taught. It's coaching."

Madden's enlightenment about head injuries is a good barometer for how the league has changed. "I remember being in the dark ages," Madden said. '"What happened? He just got dinged. 'Oh, good, at least it wasn't a knee.' We had smelling salts. I thought if you broke one of those ammonia capsules and put it under a guy's nose, and if his head jerked back, he was OK. I swear I did. At some point you have to admit that stuff. It was treated more like getting the wind knocked out of you."

Madden believes quarterbacks can prevent some of the game's most dangerous collisions. He said Stabler never would have thrown a post over the middle with a safety sitting over the top. Many of today's quarterbacks do, and part of it is strategy. As Cover 2 became more popular in the '90s, big hits over the middle became more prevalent. "This is where a lot of the helmet-to-helmet stuff and defenseless-player stuff came about," Madden said. "In Cover 2, they run the Mike deep, and the way to beat that is down the seam. They throw it over the Mike, between the safeties. That gets the receiver up in the air. If these guys can't get there to knock the ball down, the safeties get there to dislodge. That helmet-to-helmet was a taught technique to dislodge in Cover 2."

Madden coached one of the game's most feared safeties in Jack Tatum, who named his autobiography They Call Me Assassin. It's difficult to imagine the 1975 version of Tatum playing in today's NFL. "He would have had to make some changes," Madden said. "But Jack Tatum was real smart. He was a great guy. He knew what he could do and what he couldn't do. He would adjust very quickly. There are not a lot of guys like Jack Tatum."

Safety isn't Madden's only focus. He wants to see coaches allowed to use tablets on the sideline. He envisions 20-man practice squads and special coaches for player development. He wishes for a simplified rulebook to clear up a lot of the confusion. And there's much more.

Madden reaches into his pocket and pulls out a football card of Summerall from 1962. "A guy gave me this last week," he said. "Look at the last sentence on the back. He was perfect in extra points, 46-of-46. Now, 55 years later, we're saying we ought to move the extra point back, because they're too easy. I don't think we need that."

Much more than an ambassador for the game, Madden is a hands-on steward and guardian, and he takes it very seriously. "I just want to watch the game and make it as good as it can be, as safe as it can be," he said.

* * *

Madden attends the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction every year, carrying a list in his pocket a list of every Hall of Famer who will be present. As he talks to each one, he checks the name off his list. Of the 100-plus who attended last August, Madden said he most enjoyed talking to 92-year old Charley Trippi. The old timers are the best, and too many of them are gone. Madden's old boss and Hall of Fame presenter Al Davis passed away nearly three years ago. "Sometimes I think of calling Al at night," he said. "I used to call him at night all the time, about 9:00 at night. I still think, 'I'll call Al now.' The Al I coached for is a lot different than the Al people talk and write about. We were pretty close."

Behind Madden's desk, in a place of prominence, is a classic photograph of Lombardi and George Halas on the sidelines at a Packers-Bears game. Madden stares into the picture. "I talk to those two guys all the time," he said, still looking at it. "Every time I hear something that drives me crazy, I say, 'Sorry George. Sorry Vince.' I say that probably 20 times a day. There's s--- going on now that those two would roll over in their graves about."

And with that, Madden looks down and picks up a memo regarding an upcoming conference call with the safety advisory panel. John Madden, keeper of the flame, has studying to do.

 

[andana]

John Madden is the best thing about football. Top quality standup guy.

 

[Exe Gesis]

That's awesome his theater room and people can come hang out and watch football with him but also keep their place (the seat placements)

 

[Exe Gesis]

Purdy: A little clarity in Oakland stadium saga
By Mark Purdy

Mercury News Columnist

Posted: 07/10/2014 06:19:56 PM PDT

Bob Melvin, who manages the Oakland A's, is a tactful and intelligent fellow. He puts out small ego fires daily. He juggles the quirky personalities of two dozen major league baseball players.

So I figured he would make the perfect diplomat.

"During next week's All-Star break," I asked him this week, "would you think about getting involved with the Oakland city council and their Coliseum lease negotiations?"

Melvin grinned slightly. I think he also suppressed a shudder.

"I just try to stay in my lane," Melvin said. "I do follow the story. But I have enough trouble doing my own job. So I stay in my lane. I appreciate the question, though."

Drat. Another path to global peace, thwarted.

"Chaos continues in A's ballpark situation." That's pretty much a consistent headline. Even so, this week, you would have to say the insanity reached new heights.

Thanks to the work of this newspaper's Matthew Artz, we have discovered that the Oakland city council is either clueless or delusional or both.

That's because, according to our reports, the council was negotiating with the Raiders on a stadium deal that would require demolition of the current Coliseum in two years . . . which would effectively sabotage the 10-year lease extension for the A's that was approved last week by several members of the exact same city council.

After this fact was reported, Oakland mayor Jean Quan stepped in to say that no, despite everything, all was well. Quan says the city council should vote to approve the A's lease because it can definitely find a way to keep the Raiders and A's both happy and . . . well, I think she threw in a promise of free unicorn rides for all East Bay residents, too.

Here's the odd thing, though. Amidst all this madness over the past few weeks, public documents and statements have helped us learn some important stuff. In small steps, we are reaching some form of clarity about several matters, following years of speculation and blather.

Such as:

• We have always known that the Raiders want to build a stadium on the same footprint as the current O.co Coliseum. What we didn't know was that the Raiders and the private development group working on the "Coliseum City" mixed-use project there wanted to demolish the existing stadium in the next three or four years, to get the project under way. Of course, we still don't know where the money is really coming from to do any of that. Remember, the city and county still owe $180 million on the 1995 Raiders' remodel.

• We have always known the A's want, ahem, flexibility in their relationship with Joint Powers Authority that runs the Coliseum. But the exact terms of the new lease -- which was approved by the JPA but still needs city council approval -- spell out just how amazingly flexible the A's situation is. While the new lease technically is a 10-year "deal," it allows the A's to opt out with minimal financial penalties after 2018 -- or even 2017, if the Raiders decide to tear down the stadium and put a $10 million deposit on that tear-down by next year.

• We have always wondered why the Coliseum property couldn't support two stadiums. But it turns out that there's no realistic way to finance and build both Raiders and A's venues on the 120-acre site, even if Oracle Arena goes away after the Warriors leave -- and even if you include the two big parking lots north and south of the stadium. One problem is that so many utility lines and major sewer lines run through the site that would cost a fortune to relocate. A bigger reason is that two stadiums would simply take up too much of that property -- which must be developed into those mixed-use buildings to help pay for any new stadium or stadiums.

• Any thought that the downtown Howard Terminal site in Oakland would be feasible as a ballpark location for the A's was squashed when Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig issued a statement that rejected the idea. Oakland is finally beginning to realize something that San Jose learned long ago. The cities don't get to decide their ballpark futures. Major League Baseball is in charge.

• And speaking of San Jose, the city is still in play as a future home for the A's, although there are way too many moving parts to figure out percentages or possibilities. Besides the Oakland situation, those moving parts include San Jose's ongoing antitrust lawsuit (which has an August hearing in federal district court) and the identity of MLB's new commissioner (after Selig retires this winter) as well as the identity of San Jose's new mayor (after this fall's election between Sam Liccardo and Dave Cortese).
  Meanwhile, in another weird twist, the most relaxed and comfortable human being amidst all this turmoil is none other than A's co-owner Lew Wolff. He shot down any of the wild threats spouted by Oakland council member Larry Reid that the team might be moving to San Antonio or Montreal ("I've never explored any of those places," Wolff said) and seems content to let the East Bay politicos decide his fate.
  
  Wolff has not revealed his ultimate strategy. But here's a good guess: He is gambling that all of the Raiders stuff will fall apart, as will the "Coliseum City" plan. When that occurs, Wolff will be ready with his own proposal to Oakland and Alameda County: If the public bodies agree to pay off that $140 million in stadium debt and give Wolff the entire 120 acres of Coliseum property to develop profitably, the franchise will construct a new ballpark.
  
  And if Oakland gives the Raiders preference to the Coliseum site instead? Or rejects Wolff's idea? Or finds another way to screw up things? Then he turns to the new MLB commissioner and demands to either share AT&T Park with the Giants or finally receive approval for a San Jose move.
  
  That is, unless Bob Melvin works out a better solution.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Oakland approves A’s lease, with modifications the A’s don’t like
Posted by Mike Florio on July 17, 2014, 9:30 AM EDT

Getty Images
The baseball-football battle in Oakland continues to move from simmer to boil. Which perhaps isn’t the best metaphor when it comes to a stadium with a periodic sewage problem.

Via Matthew Artz of the Oakland Tribune, the City Council approved the 10-year A’s lease that the Raiders had opposed, with modifications that the A’s oppose.

The money and the major terms didn’t change. But the Oakland City Council has added language making the city and Alameda County immune from liability for lease violations committed by the Raiders. That pressure point underscores very real tensions between the A’s and Raiders regarding the future of the O.co Coliseum.

The Raiders don’t like the A’s lease because it would delay the timetable for tearing the venue down and building a new stadium. And that’s apparently setting the stage for concern that, down the road, a courtroom battle between the two Bay Area teams will unfold.

It won’t get to that point if the A’s don’t accept the revised lease. A’s President Mike Crowley said the team is “disappointed” by the situation, but that the organization will “have to take a look at it and talk about it internally.”

If the A’s ultimately decide they don’t like it, there could be an issue. At least one member of Oakland City Council doesn’t seem to be willing to blink.

“There seems to be this pattern where everyone wants the city of Oakland to be on their page,” Dan Kalb said, via Artz. “Maybe they’re used to seeing the city of Oakland get pushed around. I think there needs to be some clarity that developers or team owners need to be on our page.”

Another member of City Council stormed out of the meeting at which the vote was taken, expressing concern that the A’s would leave Oakland if the lease isn’t finalized.

“It is more nonsense,” Noel Gallo said, via Will Kane of the San Francisco Chronicle. “The City Council is full of nonsense.”

Balanced against Gallo’s concern that the A’s will leave was the worry, as expressed loudly by fans attending the meeting, that a lease for the baseball team will result in the Raiders moving.

“Don’t do the lease!” Raiders fan Brien Dixon screamed, via Artz. “This guy is never going to work with you. He doesn’t believe in you guys.”

So, basically, the situation is and continues to be a mess so big that the fresh flow of raw sewage at the O.co Coliseum would be regarded as a welcome diversion at this point.