A Look Back at Raider Fan Loyalty

While going through a bunch of old folders of mine I came across this two page story entitled "What it Means to be a Raider Fan" by Jerry Knaak, now the Raiders.com Dir. of Internet Services. How ironic that just when I begin questioning why I should buy higher priced tickets for the 2006 season I come across this commentary that puts my doubts to rest.

At the time this commentary was written the Raiders hadn't been to the playoffs in five years and hadn't been to a Super Bowl in sixteen. After reading the commentary I was reminded of those bitter years as well as the past three seasons. I was reminded of why I'm a Raiders fan and just what it means to bleed Silver and Black. So if any of you fellow Raider fans out there are thinking of jumping ship or having doubts about another tour of duty, read this commentary as a reminder to yourself of why you signed on for this adventurous journey with the Oakland Raiders to begin with. Win, Lose or Tie, I'm a Raider til I Die.

What it Means to be a Raider Fan
By Jerry Knaak Wednesday, August 18, 1999

I have been an Oakland Raiders fan for the last 27 years. This fact may not seem all that impressive, but consider that I am only 30 years old. It started innocently enough – sitting with Dad watching Monday Night Football. To a three-year-old, the game of professional football is incomprehensible. It is a blur awash with colorful images that tend to blend together. But for this lifelong fan two colors stood out on that Monday night in September of 1973 – Silver and Black. I can still recall pictures of Art Shell Played back on the video screen in my mind. The first Super Bowl I have clear, comprehensive recollections of is Super Bowl XI in which the Raiders dominated the Minnesota Vikings 32 to 14. I still have vivid memories of Willie Brown stepping in front of Sammy White, streaking down the sidelines with an errant Fran Tarkenton pass tucked under his arm.

Recently, being a Raider fan has become synonymous with suffering. Raider fans around the world have endured ridicule, been the butt of jokes, and have learned to trudge through the second half of season after season realizing that the Raiders are not playoff bound yet again. We have seen a slew of head coaches, misguided quarterbacks, and five year playoff drought. It has been a long 16 years since the Raiders hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in celebration of Super Bowl victory. And prior to last season it was starting to look like we were going to have to wait another 16 years.

Don’t get me wrong, being a Raider fan is tremendously rewarding despite the Super Bowl and current playoff droughts. Oakland may not be the intimidator it once was but the team still carries the renegade brand. The pirate, rogue image endures and the colors still inspire awe. The team and fans alike get to sport the best color combination to ever adorn the human body. We have some sort of rivalry with every National Football League team, some of them more heated than others. We go where no fans should go. I once had the audacity to show up at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City driving a Silver Pontiac Trans Am with a Raiders bumper sticker on the back. My car was promptly keyed. While fans from other cities would never have the guts to wear their team colors at the Coliseum (Cowboy fans being the exception), we Raider fans proudly fly the Silver and Black. Whether we’re in Rochester, New York, or Boise, Idaho, or even New Bedford, Massachusetts. Raider fans are everywhere, it’s almost like joining a fraternity. It’s a common body, a single purpose and the language is spoken world-wide.

Perhaps, being a Raider fan has more to do with attitude than anything else. That devil-may-care, take no prisoners philosophy pervades everything we do, and we have no tolerance for finesse and the “namby-pamby.” The team has always recruited those players that nobody else wanted, troublemakers, rabble rousers and miscreants. The fans are the ultimate reflection of the team they support. This is not something to be scoffed or sneered at. It is something to be proud of and Raider fans are proud to be just that.

To be a Raider fan means bleeding Silver and Black (literally and figuratively), it means eating, sleeping and breathing Raiders football 12 months out of the year and it means never giving up the fight. I don’t think I have ever heard of a Raider fan switching allegiances during a run of losing seasons or playoff droughts. This is not about bandwagon jumping. We Raider fans are on a pirate ship with the Jolly Roger flying for all to see and broadside guns ablazing.

My apartment has a shrine quality to it; the Raider shield above the bed, posters depicting Napoleon Kaufman and Tim Brown tacked to the wall, the 1999 schedule hung close to the computer and a Raider coffee mug next to the keyboard. You cannot just be a Raider fan. The words “I’m a Raider fan” do not merely escape your lips when discussing football. As the years go on and your devotion to the team grows, you begin to think of yourself as part of the Raider mystique. You use phrases like, “Just Win Baby,” and “Pride, Poise and Professionalism,” in every day conversation. A Raider fan is not something that you simply are, you breathe it, you live it. If life is full of experiences, then being a Raider fan is a single lifelong experience unto itself.