How Did You Come To Hate the Oakland Raiders?

Unlike a lot of the more veteran fans, I didn’t come to hate the Raiders because of cheap-shot artists like the very intelligent—yeah right—George Atkinson. There is such a deep-rooted hate of the Raiders across the country that it is passed on from generation to generation.

I’ll tell you this: My son will hate the Raiders.

My dad didn’t follow football at all. He’s a Colts fan, but he’s always on the go and has no desire on Sunday to sit and watch a football game. I started paying attention to football after we moved from San Diego to the San Francisco Bay Area.

I never watched a game, I just looked at the sports section to see how the Chargers were doing and was impressed when they started 0-4, but won 12 out of the next 14 games to end the season with a loss to the Dolphins...the first team I loved to hate.

When the Raiders moved back to the Bay Area in 1995, they were always on TV.  Before they moved back to Oakland, the Chargers were always on TV. Strike No. 1.

Since a lot of my friends were Raiders fans, I heard pure Raider-fan smack talk. You could always tell a Raider fan from their walk, from their talk, their smug look, etc...I frequently found myself uttering the phrase, "What are you...a Ray-duhs fan???" Strike No. 2.

None of this was enough to make me actually hate the Raiders. No, it was simply one play. Strike No. 3.

I had heard all the stories about how the Raiders were cheaters and cheap-shot specialists, but without the NFL Network, you never actually saw it on film like we have today. This was a game that took place way back in 1997 or so.

The Bolts were about to do what they always did back in those days, come back and win a game they had no business winning.

This is the order of events as they happened: The Raiders’ defensive tackle Chester McGlockton storms through the line. The quarterback calls for the snap. The quarterback goes down and goes down hard, much to the delight Al Davis. I proceed to slam something to the ground in disgust. Game over.

From that day forward, the man’s name was no longer Chester McGlockton. It was “Fat Ass” Chester McGlockton. I literally cannot even think of this man without those words preceding his name. It was probably the only “sack” he had the whole year.

While I love Raider fans, being a Bay Area guy myself, I do NOT love the Raiders, and now you know why. While Chester didn’t exactly clothesline a guy with his back turned, walking to the sideline in the style of George Atkinson, I hate the Raiders nonetheless.

That said, I clearly despise the Broncos more right now. That is because they are a bunch of crybabies that went to Suzy Kolber and ratted on Philip Rivers for talking too much smack. You never heard much about the smack-talking Rivers until then.

Could you imagine a Raider or Chief crying to the 5’2” tall, 110-lbs. Kolber about the big, bad Rivers talking too much smack? Like Atkinson would say, "The Broncos are soft."

However, I am learning why Raider fans love their team so much, with all of this "hating" on the Chargers recently.

Side Note

I love to hate the old timer George Atkinson. I was first exposed to this buffoon when some idiot gave him a radio show on the Ticket 1050 in San Francisco. The guy rarely had anything insightful to say. Instead, he filled the airwaves with such eloquent classics as “we Raider smash quarterback when him not looking”, or “it okay, dive at lineman knees. Him life no in danger.”

While I’m clearly lying about the previous two quotes, I knew this guy was a moron when he called a caller a derogatory six-letter word that rhymes with maggot.

49ers fan said the equivalent of: The Raiders suck. You guys aren't going anywhere.

Atkinson’s response: How dare you say something like that! You, you...you little (m)aggot!

Strike Four. However, I did laugh when he called Lynn Swan soft.