Dirk Scribbler's Guide to Being a 97 Percent Raiders Fan, Part 3

Unless you've been living under a rock or you've been more focused on Agent Orange becoming POTUS, you know Raiders majority owner Mark Davis officially filed relocation papers to move the storied franchise from Oakland to Las Vegas by 2020.  Although they have been my AFC team for most of my life, neither am I from the state of California nor have I ever been there; thus, I shouldn't be affected by this move, right?  Not exactly.  Even when the Raiders moved to Los Angeles for thirteen seasons between 1982 and 1994, they were still in Cali--a state which has its own mystique up and down its picturesque coast.  Moving the team to a place like Vegas might seem like the sexy pick, but as I contend in this third and final part of "Dirk Scribbler's Guide to Being a 97 Percent Raiders Fan", the appeal only stretches but so far--even for a Raiders fan from the D.C. area...

Although Oakland has never been high on my list of must-see cities, there are three main reasons why I do want to visit the East Bay.  First, considering my lifelong love and appreciation for Black history, I have a growing desire to see the birthplace of the Black Panther Party and take a walk through the neighborhoods they served and protected.  Second, the musician/artist in me  is always interested in the birthplaces and breeding grounds for legends and Oakland has given life to Too Short, Tony! Toni! Tone!, Sheila E., Larry Graham, MC Hammer, Walter Hawkins, En Vogue, The Pointer Sisters, Sly Stone and Tower of Power among many.  Third, and most important to this discussion, the Raiders began their journey in Oakland in 1960 as one of the original AFL teams.  After years of the Steelers knocking them out of the playoffs, they won their first Super Bowl as the Oakland Raiders.  The Super Bowl XV-winning squad which made Ice Cube a lifelong fan were still the Oakland Raiders.  Although they lost handily in Super Bowl XXXVII to the Buccaneers--which was their only Super Bowl defeat--the last Raiders Super Bowl team was the Oakland Raiders.  The possibility of sitting in The Black Hole anywhere but the Oakland Coliseum seems like I'm being cheated out of the experience of a lifetime.

With that said, the only place I would've been cool with the Raiders moving to is back to L.A. where Mark Davis originally tried to relocate the team.  Granted, Oakland fans would've been disappointed with losing their team to the bigger California market for a second time, but I wouldn't have felt as slighted as my fellow Raiders fans in the East Bay.  As an 80s and 90s baby, my first memories of the Raiders were when they were at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum in South Central--the stomping grounds of N.W.A., who have flown the flag for Raider Nation harder than anyone else in entertainment.   When he embarrassed my former favorite team in Super Bowl XVIII, San Diego native and USC star running back Marcus Allen was an L.A. Raider and also the team's first draft pick once they moved to his SoCal stomping grounds.  For the entirety of his short-lived but electrifying career, Bo Jackson was an L.A. Raider.  Sans his rookie year, Howie Long's decorated career was as an L.A. Raider.  Furthermore, although it was always high on my list, L.A. has leapfrogged Atlanta as the No. 1 city on my bucket list of U.S. cities I'm determined to visit.  Although finally visiting my father-in-law and his wife has been the biggest incentive to traveling west, the Raiders being in my top city to visit would've been butter cream icing on the cake.  Unfortunately, with the Rams moving back this past regular season and the Chargers filing relocation papers this month, slicing up one market's pie three ways doesn't sound appetizing and guaranteed the Raiders would look elsewhere.

Enter Sin City.  One of my dear, dear friends posted the SportsCenter graphic to the left and said, "I feel like this changes the feel of the franchise... You good with this if this goes through?"  Before she asked that question, this is something I've been mulling over for months and now that Las Vegas is a reality, I'm not in love with the move.  On one hand, I've never been to Vegas, so the Raiders would be the biggest draw to finally taking a trip there.  On the other hand, the bright lights and ostentatious vibe of Vegas goes against my humble and low-key nature--one of the reasons why I never moved to New York City, although I love visiting--and Vegas is only fifth on my list of cities to see before I die behind L.A., Atlanta, San Diego and New Orleans.  As far as the "feel of the franchise", the Raiders are too gritty of a franchise to be somewhere as "pretty" or "sexy" as Las Vegas and as more of a tourist attraction, I don't see the natives being as invested in the team as folks in Oakland or L.A.  Granted, an argument could be made about the home of Hollywood and the Lakers being a "pretty" city, but the Raiders would've been back in South Central for a while, thus maintaining their grit.  Moreover, the name "Las Vegas Raiders" doesn't have the same flow as "Oakland Raiders" or "L.A. Raiders" unless the common reference would be the "Vegas Raiders", which still doesn't have the same ring to it.  All-in-all, despite the move to one of the most alluring and exciting cities on the planet, the move feels a little blah.

Much like my former favorite franchise, the Raiders have had their fair share of blunders in their 57-year history.  Maybe it's ingrained in their name, but the Raiders have been one of the most undisciplined teams in the league, racking up penalties left and right and even breaking the single-game record for the highest amount of accepted penalties against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a game they should've lost because of the excessive mental errors.  The late Al Davis rubbed a lot of his fellow owners the wrong way in his lifetime, infuriated NFL executives by moving the team to L.A. against their opposition and had his hand in a lot of meh draft picks.  For the last eight years of his life, the Raiders were an average team at best and a squad prone to notch top-five draft picks at worst as they became a destination where few players wanted to land.  Now, his son is moving the team from the state which gave the franchise its swagger and it seems like the spirit of what made the Raiders the most lovable band of pirates is being grieved.

However, minus having one of the longest streaks of postseason absence in recent memory, the Raiders have been one of the NFL's most successful franchises with an overall winning regular season and postseason record.  Unlike my former squad, the Raiders were a progressive franchise under Al Davis--who wouldn't allow his team to play in cities where Black and White players had to stay in separate hotels, hired the NFL's first Black head coach and woman executive and hired the NFL's second Latino head coach.  Although I don't consider myself the rough-and-tumble type, the depths of my spirit always seem to gravitate toward teams, artists, social and political groups and concepts with edge to them and the Raiders have had plenty of that.  Moreover, there has always been something about the powerful simplicity of The Silver and Black which has spoken to me more than any other team in the NFL--even my childhood squad.  While it will be difficult to cheer for the Las Vegas Raiders, perhaps putting the 97 percent figure in jeopardy, I'll still cheer for them.  Besides, it's simply motivation to buy all of the throwback Oakland and L.A. Raiders hats and gear I possibly can.

Whether you're from Oakland, Los Angeles, Las Vegas or a market which has no history whatsoever with the Raiders like me, how does the rest of Raider Nation feel about this move?  Will you still be a fan or nah?  Please drop your take(s) in the comments.  Please also click on the numbers if you missed Parts 1 & 2.