Don't Worry Be Happy

[Toast]

I think the frustration of losing is really starting to boil over on this forum. We have kind of divided into two factions. One is trying to maintain some semblance of optimism while the other believes 2025 is a lost cause.

I am not sure either point of view necessarily wrong just yet.

To lighten things up answer two questions on this thread if you care to:

1-Why did you choose the screen name that you did?

2-What is a funny Raider moment or yarn off of the field.

I'll go first. Elvis "Toast" Patterson and his horse collar used to crack me up. He always looked like a nut case on the sidelines chewing on his mouth piece. Buffalo's Steve Tasker seemed to always get recognized as the AFC's premier special teams players but Toast was pretty darn good as well and if I remember correctly he did make a Pro Bowl as a Raider. One of my favorite players from my youth.

The Raiders were playing at Mile High Stadium during the 1985 season. Dokie Williams was going up for a pass and was blatantly hit before the ball got there. It was an obvious interference penalty that wasn't called.

George Anderson yelled at the ref calling him a blind little cocksucker. The ref turned back to the Raiders bench and asked who made the comment. No one responded to which the ref replied that if whoever said it were a man he would fess up. Finally George Anderson fessed up and immediately the ref flagged the Raiders bench for a 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty. Once the ref was out of earshot George Anderson lamented how stupid he was, he never should have called the ref little.

The Raiders ended up winning the game and apparently even Al managed to smile after George recounted in the locker room how the ref baited him into confessing.

[Attyla]

Damn man that's awesome. Jealous

I was doing a freelance article on Steve Smith, who was drafted the same year. I am friends with Bruce Wilkerson who was also drafted the same year. Bruce hooked me up with Bo on the piece. I also got to interview Chie Smith, Steve's wife and former Raiderette.

Man that was forever ago. We are getting close to 20 years ago. Fun times. I got to do some serious shit back in the day.

But Bo was at his office so I gave him a call there. I still have the recordings from that interview. We discussed their careers and interactions. The three of them were close friends due to their draft year and how they would grab beers and head to the beach after practice and hang out and wrestle. Needless to say, as big as Bruce was, it was Bo who was the strongest. Bruce also talked about Alzado's attempt at a come back. Alzado was no longer on the roids and Bruce said during camp that he got tossed around pretty easily which saddened me a bit since I was such a huge fan of his. Davis took the high road and let Alzado retire again and never mentioned his condition using a knee injury as the reason. He died two years later. He may have already had the cancer that would ultimately claim his life but we will never know.

[raider_kin]

The guy who was to become my best friend, asked me the Fall of our freshman year of college: do you like football? I said I was a big basketball fan as that what I had played and he said "well, you ought to be a fan of the Oakland Raiders because they are the most charismatic team in pro sports." OK, I said I would watch some games with him. The 1969 season was fun, but it got really good right after that, and Marv Hubbard was the a key player for them in that period of 1970-76. It was his style that we liked the most though and this, from Wikipedia, spells it out and hence my avatar and name:

Hubbard was quick for his size, and powerfully built. Famous for his aggressive style, he was a fan favorite of the John Madden-led Raiders in the early to mid 1970s. In an interview with the Contra Costa Times, Madden stated: "Marv Hubbard was one of the toughest players we ever had. There are people that will have contact and people that won't have contact, but only a few that will have it and really enjoy it. Marv was one of those guys who truly enjoyed the collision. He would look for it." Hubbard averaged 4.82 yards per carry during his professional career, which ranks third all time for an NFL fullback (behind only Pro Football Hall of Fame fullbacks Jim Brown and Joe Perry) and is tied for 13th for all-time top yards per carry for any player in NFL history. His career yards per carry average was higher than many of the games legendary running backs, including Walter Payton, O. J. Simpson, Eric Dickerson, Emmitt Smith and Marshall Faulk. Hubbard led the Raiders in rushing four straight seasons from 1971 to 1974, and averaged over 1,000 total yards from scrimmage in each

Me and a friend of mine played a "game" we called "Hubbard vs Butkus." We would stand about ten feet apart facing each other and just run into each other at full tilt.

And people wonder why women live longer than men.

PS we were about 12 or 13 at the time.

[RunOverByHubbard]

Me and a friend of mine played a "game" we called "Hubbard vs Butkus." We would stand about ten feet apart facing each other and just run into each other at full tilt.

And people wonder why women live longer than men.

PS we were about 12 or 13 at the time.

Sounds about right for us boys. I can still kind of recall Bill King exclaiming on the radio "..and Hubbard is carrying tacklers on this back" He also like to lower his shoulder and take tacklers on full-bore. Hence, my moniker of "Run Over By Hubbard"

[Dr Death]

I was silver & black on the old forum. I couldn't use it here so, I just used what I always thought was one of the best nick names from the Soul Patrol days.