In Silver And Black...

[Angry Pope]

Here are some quotes from people who have donned our colors.

 

[Angry Pope]

Lyle Alzado....

“If me and King Kong went into an alley, only one of us would come out. And it wouldn't be the monkey.”

“I never met a man I didn't want to fight.”

 

[Angry Pope]

Lincoln Kennedy....

On Darrell Russell....

“Darrell was a good guy, he really was. He was a big kid like me that had a big heart. He couldn't say no to anybody. That's what had a big deal with his demise, especially in the NFL, because he couldn't let his friends go, from San Diego. He couldn't let his past go. He always wanted to try to take care and do for other people. It ended up bringing him down.”

 

[Angry Pope]

Howie Long and Lyle Alzado...

When Howie Long and Lyle Alzado were Raiders teammates, they used to plan their trash talk.

"One day we were discussing our favorite threat," Long said. "Lyle's was, 'I'm gonna kill you and everything you love.'

"Mine was, 'I'm gonna wait for you in the parking lot and beat you up in front of your family.'"

 

[Angry Pope]

Art Shell...

"I want us to go out, punch a guy in the mouth, go back to the huddle, come back to the line of scrimmage, smile at the guy and then punch him in the mouth again."

“When you walk out there, when you into that stadium, you walk out there with a presence. Mr. Davis called it a swagger. I just want to get back to the point where when we walk into a stadium, they know the Raiders are in town. And when we walk into the Coliseum, the Raiders are here. ... We've got to create that attitude, and that's what I expect to do.”

 

[Angry Pope]

Michael Huff...

“I think it's kind of a new breed of safety. Safeties have to do more than just stay in the middle of the field and hit. Now, they have to cover and blitz and do it all, and that's what I like to do.”

 

[Angry Pope]

Rich Gannon....

“I never took one day in my NFL career for granted. I realized how fortunate I was to be playing a game I loved.”

 

[Angry Pope]

Randy Moss....

“[SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA -- Randy Moss looked around the crowded locker room inside San Francisco's Monster Park. Many of the faces he saw belonged to Raiders teammates who are still somewhat strangers to him. Some, he guessed, had only heard the tales of Randy Moss during his seven-year stay in Minnesota.] They really don't know me, and I really don't know them, ... But one thing for sure that I try to leave them with is I am serious about my J-O-B. Once I retire and leave this game, that's what I want everybody to understand.”

 

[Angry Pope]

Randy.....


That's great, Randy. But tell me, what's under the do-rag?

"I'll tell you what's under it, playa," says Moss. "The best receiver in the game."

After the first week of the season...

"Put me in purple and gold," says Moss, "or silver and black. Shoot, put me in pink tutu and a top hat. Madd Skillz always gets the job done. And what kind of fool thinks the Vikings' offense is better off without me. I outscored them all by myself. Seven points to six. Their defense scored their only touchdown."

 

[Angry Pope]

Al Davis....

“It may take a short while, but we'll get that nastiness of the Raiders back. And that's one of the reasons we're going to depend on the great Art Shell to help us get that done.”

On John Madden...

“I saw greatness in John and he lived up to it. I also saw a tremendous competitor who loved to win. John is a standard bearer, someone that players, coaches, fans and the Raider Nation can all look up to. One of his great virtues, the fire that burned brightest in him, was his love and passion for football, which was seldom ever equaled.”

“It's time John took his rightful place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He certainly brings an excellence to it that no one can deny. I saw greatness in him and he lived up to it.”

On Bill King...

“Bill was a great friend, a brilliant performer and an exceptional man. I say this with great admiration and love that Bill becomes one of the people that I give the cloak of immortality. Time never stops for the great ones.”

 

[Angry Pope]

Tom Flores....

“A total commitment is paramount to reaching the ultimate in performance.”

 

[Angry Pope]

Lincoln Kennedy...

"I was going to write myself in, but I was afraid I'd get shot. "(on his decision not to vote)

 

[Angry Pope]

Bob Brown describing how Skip Thomas looked...

"...death warmed over, swallowed down, and spit back up."

 

[Angry Pope]

Bill Romanowski....

"On one play, I remember hitting him out of bounds, grabbing his throat and squeezing it like it was Silly Putty," Romanowski, said, referring to Brunell, whose Jaguars team had upset the Broncos the previous season. " 'You cheap shot artist!' Brunell screamed at me. 'You're going down, Brunell! I looked at your friggin' face every day for a friggin' year! I've waited all year for this!' "

Romanowski had put a picture of Brunell on the front door of his own gym before the '97 season as motivation since Jacksonville had upset the Broncos in the playoffs in the '96 season.

“You're the biggest idiot that ever came out of Boston College. I'm insulted that we could have gone to the same school.”

What Romanowski yelled to Mark Chumura when they lined up across from him.

“I'd run through a brick wall for this guy, simple as that,”

His admiration for Al

 

[Angry Pope]

Blanda.....

“In twenty-six years in the pros, I haven't noticed many changes. The players are faster, bigger, smarter, and more disloyal to their owners, but that's about it.”

 

[Angry Pope]

Madden....

“ Al knows football, the rules, the ticket situation, the radio contracts, the advertising. He'd have a mood for each one -- he would create his own moods. A mood for drafting, a mood for trading, a mood for negotiating. One mood just kicks right into another. You can simplify a simple person. You can't simplify Al Davis. ”
— John Madden

 

[Angry Pope]

Hendricks....

``Because of us there's the no-clothesline rule, the no-spearing rule, the no-hitting-out-of-bounds rule, the no-fumbling-forward-in-the-last-

two-minutes-of-the-game rule, the no-throwing-helmets rule and the no-Stickum rule. So you see, we're not all bad.''

Hendricks take on his team's bad rap...

 

[Angry Pope]

Madden and Al the night before the Super Bowl....

"We're going to kill 'em," I told Al Davis the night before the game. "I just know we're going to kill 'em tomorrow."


"No, no John, don't talk like that," Al said. "Don't ever talk like that before a game. You know better than that."

 

[Angry Pope]

“The high of a win is never as high as the low of a loss, and the longer you are in the business, the wider that gap becomes.”

- John Madden on coaching

 

[Angry Pope]

Villapiano on where he got his nickname, Foo...

A teammate named Duane Benson. We were out drinking some beers one night and our eyes were getting pretty watery. After a while he couldn't say Phil, so he was calling me Foo. It was a great night.

On when he started playing football...

I must have been about four, playing in the neighborhood with the older kids. They use to beat the hell out of me. It was great. It definitely had a long-term effect on me and my playing.

"When you play for the Raiders you play to win and you play tough. It's not something the coaches teach or talk about. It's just there, like in the air. It's an attitude--you are going to hit people and smash them if you are a Raider."