Being A Raiders Fan

In the comments section of the previous take, Oaktown Blues threw down a challenge, asking: Why are you a Raider Fan, and what is one thing that could cause you to not be. Best answer gets a really nice Raiders jersey, I'm not kidding.

I answered: Because I am, and never. 

He replied that the response was weak, and said he's digging for more. I don't know what he's driving at, but it got me thinking, so following is my reply. I thought it might be a good topic for all of us to consider and share, if only to spare us from wallowing in the doldrums of this lost season. So here's my take, and I'd like to know yours:

Oaktown Blues, are you trying to get us to say it's the uniforms? In the famous words of Seinfeld, we are rooting for "laundry?"

The uniforms are definitely part of it, but it's hard to extract the emotional connection to the uniforms from the larger experience of being a fanatic. I'm sure there are Eagles fans, Bills fans, etc. for whom those uniforms exert a certain primal pull.

I grew up in a Raiders household, dad and older brother screaming at the TV, Stabler sauntering up to the line (Search YouTube for the Sea of Hands, there's a 15 minute special there, and Stabler just looks so badass as he walks to the line on that final play, slowly, deliberately, calm....), Al Davis sneering, Madden gesticulating...

Everything grabbed me, not just the uniforms, but the sense of household bonding that watching Raiders brought, the renegade nature of the team, and the perpetual drama, the incredible seasons that more often than not ended in disappointment (as dominant as they were in the 70s, they only went to one Super Bowl in that decade).

Other fans have their own infinite variants on my story. Something grabbed them and won't let go. Their favorite team becomes something larger than a team. It becomes a fond memory and a future promise, a bonding mechanism for family and friends, a point of escapism from the pressures of a job, responsibilities, etc. In time, the experience spans decades and generations, as it has done for me.

To this day, and most recently last Thursday night, I just can't reconcile the uniform with the performance. I see the silver and black, "the silver hats about their heads," and expect them to hit people. Yet there's Giordano, flying around in empty spaces doing a remarkable Stuart Schweigert impersonation. I'll never be able to get used it, even though I've been watching it for 10 straight years.

So why am I a fan of the Raiders? Like I said, because I am.