It’s Purely Great Stuff When Division Foes Meet on MNF

It’s Purely Great Stuff When Division Foes Meet on MNF

David Bell

During the regular season, a game in Prime Time, under the lights, at Arrowhead Stadium… is as good as it gets! What’s more, Division foes clash, and for the Chiefs, it’s…

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Following this coming weekend, the Kansas City Chiefs face the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday Night Football. Think back to the 2020 season. That year, the Raiders beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead and HC Jon Gruden and his team took a victory lap on their busses around Arrowhead, thumbing their noses at Chiefs Kingdom. Of course, Gruden is gone, and K.C. has had their way with the Vegas team since that travesty. However — we didn’t start the fire — the rivalry goes back to before the game in 1970 when the Raiders DE Ben Davidson speared QB Lenny the Cool.

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Otis Taylor then jumped on Davidson, and the melee between the two teams became a barroom brawl.

Dawson had just run for a first down, and that’s when Davidson did the deed. The result was that both teams were flagged, thus an offsetting penalty. From that point, rather than having a 3-point lead and a first down, the Chiefs replayed the down and did not move the chains. After that failure, the Raiders drove down the field and kicked a game-tying FG by George Blanda. The tie went into the books.

Later, in December, the Chiefs faced the Raiders again, who consequently won the AFC West. The Chiefs could not defend their 1969 Championship, but still had a shot at getting into the Playoffs as a Wild Card, but only if the Chiefs beat the Chargers on Sunday afternoon plus the Buffalo Bills won their game against the Dolphins on the early slate of games. The Bills lost, dashing the hopes of the Chiefs for Post-Season play. Then the Chiefs lost to the Chargers. That’s how the 1970 season ended for the Kansas City Football club. During the 1970 season, my dislike was heightened to the point of me calling the weeks we played the Raiders…

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The incident resulted in the NFL adding a new rule — the “Davidson” Rule — which wasn’t implemented until 1976. The rule prohibits players from running, diving into, or throwing their body against a player on the ground and making no attempt to advance the ball. silverandblackpride.com explains it this way:

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“In the 1960s, Ben Davidson was the physical embodiment of all things Raiders and he played a hand in a rule change that would take effect in 1976, six years after he snatched victory, or at least a tie, out of the jaws of defeat from the Kansas City Chiefs.”

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My dislike for the Oakland Raiders goes back to the beginning of the AFL. The AFL was the new kid on the block vs. the NFL. What was nearly as entertaining was the vying of AFL Teams versus the NFL for players in the draft. The NFL had a superiority complex, and many AFL Teams won out in the competition for players, bringing excitement to the AFL. BTW, Chiefs HC Andy Reid had a favorite player when he was growing up in Southern California and that was USC’s RB Mike Garret who of course was drafted by the Chiefs in 1966 and he helped K.C. to it’s first ever Super Bowl win (remember 65-Toss Power Trap? That was Mike Garret running it into the end zone). Yep, that was Hank Stram saying, “It might pop wide open… and it did!

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Here is an excellent example of the two leagues vying for the same college players in the draft: Joe Namath, drafted #1 by the Jets and #12 by the then St. Louis Cardinals.

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Joe Willie opted for the Jets. I was an official Chiefs fan in 1963, and an AFL fan as well. Since that time, my fanship has never faltered. Things have never changed despite the AFL/NFL merger. Before the merger, the Chiefs won the AFL Championship and faced the Green Bay Packers in what we now call the “First Super Bowl.” The Chiefs were in the game at the half and then lost badly in the second half. Then, of course, the 1966 season was a contest of the AFC West games featuring the Raiders. By 1966, I was not too fond of the Raiders. Since those days, it hasn’t changed, though I later came to admire many Raider players and coaches, especially Jon Madden.

In 1965 the Chiefs finished with a record of 7-5-2 (in the days of a 14-game schedule). What is noticeable is that the Chiefs played seven preseason games. That means the NFL teams played a total of 21 games… before the playoffs began!

This Week on MNF

The Raiders are coming to town. We always treat these games the same way, as if a visit from a nasty cousin results in a highly physical altercation. As usual, we are amidst Raiders Week. Games such as this are always accompanied by much hype in Kansas City. Red Friday will burst on the scene all around the city, and close environs, and on Monday, Patrick Mahomes will brandish his throwing arm like the sword of Gideon. Evil Incarnate for this week? Derek Carr!

I mentioned in my last article that I didn’t believe that the Chiefs would lose an MNF game, played at home and especially against the now Vegas Raiders. Besides being a division game that always sees players from both teams fight their most brutal, it is also a time for the Chiefs to ensure they win the Division while, at the same time, the Raiders are going to attempt to find redemption.

Monday Night’s Caped Crusader?

The Chiefs will add to the woes of the Raiders, who will fall to a record of 1-4, and the Chiefs will move up to a 4-1 record. After all, it’s “Hate Raiders Week” on MNF. (1 – see below)

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Prediction? In a hard-fought game, the defense will hold their opponent to my magic number: Score: Chiefs 31, over the truly evil Las Vegas Raiders 20. (2).

(1) – *Hate is a strong word, but what I mean is, “Football Hate” when using the term above.

(2) – Week Five, evil personified photo.

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The Franchise, Episode 5

A Chance For Retribution

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David Bell — ArrowheadOne

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