‘Basically the same teams’
Stars who played for both believe franchises aren’t all that different
SAN FRANCISCO — For the first nine seasons of his 12-year NFL career, linebacker Matt Millen was viewed as a poster boy for the renegade Raiders.
Millen once punched Patriots general manager John Sullivan after a playoff loss with the Silver and Black, had endless in-game scraps and was among the Raiders’ leading villains. And then, in 1989, Millen joined the 49ers, the franchise of cerebral head coach Bill Walsh and his revolutionary West Coast offense.
“So I’d get into four or five fights a game and I’d lose my mind a couple times and they’d be like ‘What a great Raider!’ ” Millen said last week, laughing. “When I went to San Francisco, I was the same way, but at the time somebody wrote an article and said what a gentleman I had become. I was like ‘Um, yeah, OK.’”
In Millen’s experience, the supposedly vast cultural difference between the teams was more about perception. With the Raiders, with whom he won two Super Bowls, and the 49ers, with whom he won one title, there was a hard-working ethos and, yes, some hard-partying players.
“The reality,” Millen said, “is they were basically the same teams.”
Whatever the perceived differences, the franchises have shared California addresses since their 13-game series began with a 49ers win (38-7) on Dec. 20, 1970, in Oakland. But Thursday night’s game at Levi’s Stadium probably will mark the last time they will meet while both are based in the Bay Area, or the same state.
Despite their proximity, the history of this 49ersRaiders series is lacking largely because they’ve met so infrequently. This game marks only their fourth regular-season meeting since 2002.
But the storied franchises have shared plenty of accomplished players, most notably Hall of Famers Ronnie Lott and Jerry Rice. Others to suit up for both teams include Millen, quarterback Jim Plunkett, running back Roger Craig, fullback Tom Rathman and linebacker Bill Romanowski.
The one unmistakable pattern: Nearly all the players who played for both teams began with the 49ers. Raiders owner Al Davis, famously fond of resurrecting veterans, habitually snagged marquee players from the 49ers’ championship era, hoping to revive his own franchise’s glory days.
“Al Davis wanted all the Niners, baby,” Rathman said, chuckling.
Craig spent eight seasons with the 49ers (1983-90), high-stepping his way into franchise lore on three Super Bowl champions. Along the way, on the field before preseason games against the then-Los Angeles Raiders, he often found himself chatting with Davis.
Craig recalled Davis sauntering over, smiling and chewing gum as he half-jokingly proclaimed, “Roger! You know you want to be a Raider!”
Then, when Craig and Lott landed in Plan B free agency after the ’90 season, they joined the Raiders — two of the most recognizable players of the 49ers dynasty suddenly wearing Silver and Black. (Lott earned four Super Bowl rings in San Francisco.)
“Al respected me and Ronnie,” Craig said. “We went together. It was business.”
That business created an awkward reunion at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sept. 29, 1991. Craig, Lott and their new Raiders teammates played their old, familiar 49ers teammates; the Raiders prevailed 12-6 in a defensive tussle featuring six field goals and no touchdowns.
“It was like playing against your brothers out there,” Craig said. “You just feel bad about the whole situation. You want to play well. Ronnie was putting some serious hits on guys.” “Rathman supports Millen’s stance when it comes to the supposedly vast differences between the franchises. In Rathman’s estimation, the key difference was this: The 49ers’ debauchery was more discreet.
“I’m not saying the 49ers weren’t down at the bar, either,” said Rathman, now the Colts’ running backs coach. “It just didn’t get in the paper.”