Raider History: Raiders vs Steelers Rivalry

to blue-collared cities together against each other with good tough football games and you know when you play the Steelers you better have your chinstrap button the most fun that I've ever had in my life was playing against the Oakland Raiders me that was what football was all about my arms in the back of my neck I get goose peppers they boo us so bad it was fueled by the hatred for each other fueled by wanting to go to the Super Ball and it just exploded after the Immaculate reception the Steelers wilted in the heat of their battles with the Raiders [Music] they lost three straight to Oakland including the 1973 AFC wild card game the team was groping for guidance especially number 12 quarterback Terry Bradshaw Bradshaw was benched before the Oakland game early in the 1974 season but one man finally came along with some advice for Bradshaw on the Steelers and he shifted the balance of power back to Pittsburgh Pittsburgh started Joe Vivian in the game and we beat him something like 17 nothing after the game Terry Bradshaw had said to me can you get me out of here can you trade for him and I said to him listen I love you I got enough problems I can't get you but let me put in a good word for you Chuck Noll had been a close friend and I probably want to dumbest things I've ever done said to why the hell don't you play Bradshaw and stop playing give you Brad julik and win for you he put Bradshaw back in the line they went on for that incredible run and we had our hands full with the Steelers from then on because good me raised the same and suggested that they want to start Bradshaw al Davis may have pushed his rivals in the right direction but as the two teams move toward a rematch in the 1974 AFC Championship Game another Raider would utter the words that push the Steelers too far the Raiders had played Miami Dolphins John Madden at the time the coach said that the best two teams the National Football League had played today and this was a super choose it when met Chuck said who said that the Super Bowl was played this past Sunday the best two teams when played in that game he's well father I want to tell you the best team in the National Football League they didn't have a chance bottom line they didn't have a team [Music] the steel is used 21 fourth-quarter points to snatch away the game after Oakland that led 13 to 3 Pittsburgh's 24 213 win humbled the confident Raiders in front of their home crowd Oakland would have to wait a full year for the chance to get even in the 1975 conference championship game the plot thickened around a curious pattern of ice and a dubious new character groundskeeper dirt DiNardo the night before that game this mysterious tear was in the it was in the talk and we go back the next day and his frozen the field is frozen the only place that's not frozen is between the two hash marks our game was to throw him that beat bowl melt blunt if there's one play he dreaded it was Clifford branch but they all dreaded Clifford branch so with that ice we had to move those receivers in and that narrowed the field for us I'll never forget Pete Rozelle said to me well it's the same for both sides I said damn it Pete you don't even understand what you're talking about it's not the save for both sides the Steelers won 16 to 10 is the ice along the sideline neutralized cliff Branch but safety George Atkinson number 43 and the Raiders didn't manage to find their own way to take care of Pittsburgh's leading receiver Lynn Swann you know we never go out on the field with the intentions of trying to hurt anyone but we've got within tendons to get my job done and if you don't want to get hit his best bet is not to show up when we play sunny because I guarantee he will get hit this one's gonna be thinking about it he knows we're back there and he knows any time he comes in my area George is ready to catch the ball or attempt to catch the ball he's gonna get hit and he's gonna get hit hard but I think you know he's a professional athlete doing he's gonna have a job to do if he can't think I have to replace him with somebody else and uh he knows this and I know this in the past he's done a lot of mouths and off but personally I think he's more interested in being an announcement and he is a football player the radar secondary he has a group attempted to intimidate people by playing on the fringe of what was legal and beyond the French and I'll tell you that as a fact what you had to do as a receiver is not let that Bobby I think George has proven himself and what kind of a person he is as far as that his play on the field my concentration will be on catching the ball and winning and going back to Pasadena on Opening Day 1976 on a running play George Atkinson struck the rivalries most vicious blow [Applause] the real bitterness the George Atkinson situation where George Atkinson came up behind Lynn Swann and felled him with the blow when Swann was dying field and was not even the guy the ball was being thrown to the bitterness was really bad then between these two teams I'm telling you whenever you end up in with the Steelers and the Raiders even have a tough football game everyone's gonna be angry when it's all said and done and eventually someone's gonna get sued about it after that game Steelers coach Chuck Noll called Atkinson a criminal Atkinson claimed he was slandered and filed a two million dollar lawsuit against Norrell to repair his good name Atkinson's claim was thrown out of court it was such a joke you got those maniacs over there we were too rough for them give me a break ultimately the teams took their feud back to the field where the fight had never been about name-calling but about pride and the league's two best teams playing championship football the two Super Bowls that they went to were through Oakland through us they beat us both times we just couldn't take it anymore it was like we were gonna leave it out there if we don't win that day forget the season and here comes the Steelers all cocky and we wanted them [Music] the Steelers had to play the 1976 AFC title game without Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier and the Raiders took full advantage of the circumstances [Music] the best the Steelers defense could do was to keep the score down to Oakland 24 Pittsburgh 7 the biggest heartbreak that I ever ever had on a football field life I remember making the comment after the game was over I said just give me a six-pack and about a half an hour rest let's go out and planted yet I think we can eat after the 1976 championship game the feud subsided the rancor had turned into respect but if memories of the NFL's greatest feud still cause the heart to skip a beat it's just a little of the old bad blood still pumping pretty much dirt guys got old and our guys got old and an ND but boy was it fun and I go to Pittsburgh now and I I love the cells in these people because all those the other fans with all those office buildings and I just go in there I show them this wing and I show them the score on the side of this ring out Davis put 24/7 Raiders 24 Steelers 7 on the ring that's how much you

Channel: TheRaidersFilmVault

Views: 19,408

Rating: 4.9083095 out of 5

Keywords: Oakland Raiders, RaiderClips, Tim Brown, Derek Carr, Khalil Mack, Al Davis, John Madden, Ken Stabler, Bo Jackson, Football, amari cooper, News, Sports, Jon Gruden, nfl history, Archives, NFL Films

Id: D94vpdgXV5Q

Length: 8min 47sec (527 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 26 2019