What We Learned About the Oakland Raiders Thursday Night

Nastiest Rivalry in NFL History is Back!

In the 1966, legendary Raiders owner Al Davis was commissioner of the AFL, winning the war against the NFL. Then Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt led AFL owners to merge the two leagues behind his back. And that merger came at the expense of Davis’ job.

Hence, Davis went on to hate NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle, Hunt and his Chiefs. And the nastiest rivalry in the NFL was born with players literally and figuratively fighting it out. The Raiders drafted and acquired players just to compete with the Chiefs.

The Chiefs won the AFL to go to the first Super Bowl that year and the next year, the Raiders went. Then two years later, the Chiefs beat them to go to the fourth Super Bowl. It got to the point that both teams were drafting and trading to beat each other.

From there, the Raiders won Super Bowls in the ’70s and ’80s when the Chiefs were down. The Chiefs haven’t won anything since the ’60 but were relevant while the Raiders were down. For a half a century, either one team played spoiler or it was just a hatred game.

Now, both teams, are back, still drafting, trading and acquiring players to compete with each other. And they are both fighting for the AFC West again as both teams are 10-3. As you would expect, it was a physical game, fun to watch regardless of the outcome.