Remembering “Snake” Stabler
Quarterback’s plays, personality were memorable
It was the play that sparked a career of memorable plays.
It was the way he snaked through the thick mud caking Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala., racing 53 yards down the sideline for the game-winning touchdown in the memorable 7-3 victory in the 1967 Iron Bowl vs. Auburn.
“I was holding the play clipboard; it was soaking wet, and there was no way to write anything. And Kenny comes out on the option — and Kenny wasn’t a fast runner, he was elusive,” says Scott Hunter, Stabler’s backup in 1967. “So he turns the corner there and gets a block from Dennis Dixon, and Kenny starts running down the sideline. ... The thing must have gone on for 20 seconds, and I start thinking: ‘Hey, he might score.’ ”
Stabler would relive the play and the game time and time again, whenever an eager Crimson Tide fan — usually of the full-grown adult variety — brought it up to him at a charity event or an alumni function.
“You think about some of those plays, for them to stick out in your mind 40-something years later, what an impact that had on football,” says former Alabama defensive back Benny Perrin, who still remembers listening to Stabler make plays on his family’s home radio in Decatur, Ala.
Stabler, who died at 69 last week after a brief battle with colon cancer, had a profound impact on Alabama football and the Oakland Raiders even after his playing career ended.
“I’ve often said if I had one drive to win a game to this day and I had a quarterback to pick, I would pick Kenny,” former Raiders coach John Madden said in a statement. “‘ Snake’ was a lot cooler than I was. He was a perfect quarterback and a perfect Raider. When you think about the Raiders, you think about Ken Stabler.”
Before that, Stabler embodied all that most fans loved about Crimson Tide football — the freespirited, good-ol’-boy personality off the field juxtaposed with the tough, never-give-up attitude that helped lead the Tide to 28 wins as starting quarterback.
“I think Kenny’s style is one of those that people followed, because Alabama fans never felt like they were out of a game if he was there,” say Tommy Hicks, a longtime sportswriter from Mobile, Ala. “They always felt like he could do something at the end for the team to win, whether it’s run or throw a pass or call a play or just his presence, and he’d find a way to win.”
Described as a free spirit and a fun-loving teammate and friend, Stabler was nicknamed “The Snake” for his wild playing style and personality. Distinctive among quarterbacks for being a left-handed thrower who sported shaggy hair, Stabler, drafted in the second round in 1968 by the Raiders, also was famous for embracing the nightlife in Oakland and on the road.
But he was a winner. He led Alabama to an 11-0 season in 1966 and the Raiders to the Super Bowl XI title. He had a 96-49-1 career NFL mark, and he led the team to seven playoff berths and signature wins such as the “Sea of Hands” playoff victory against the Miami Dolphins after the 1974 season.
He was the 1974 NFL MVP and a four-time Pro Bowl selection, finishing his 15-season career with 27,938 passing yards and 194 touchdown passes after stints with the Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints.
Former Alabama and NFL quarterback Richard Todd remembers a conversation he had about Stabler with longtime Crimson Tide equipment manager Willie Meadows during his senior year in 1975.
“I remember asking him distinctly. I said: ‘Willie, you’ve been here forever. So who’s the best Alabama quarterback you ever saw?’ ” Todd recalls. “He didn’t hesitate one second. He said, ‘Kenny Stabler.’ I said, ‘Better than (Joe) Namath?’ and he said, ‘Yep.’ … And that always stuck with me.”
Stabler managed to endear himself with everyone he came in contact with away from the field, especially when his playing days were over.
“When you met him, it was like you’ve known him your whole life,” says Perrin, a member of the Crimson Tide’s 1978 and 1979 national title teams. “It was like he was more honored to meet me. I told him (one time), ‘Man, you were my hero growing up,’ and he was like, ‘Man you were mine when you were playing.’
“He would turn it around and make you feel like you were the hero.”
Everyday fans had similar experiences with Stabler, a man of the people — especially throughout his home state — by its very definition.
“He always had time for fans, and I think that’s what endeared him to the Alabama fans and football fans (in general),” Hicks says. “Anybody that came in contact with him enjoyed spending time with (him), because he made you feel important (more) than it being the other way around.”
And he enjoyed the interaction with fans, for the pleasure of reliving past glory as well as reveling in the shared success as a fan himself.
“He was sort of the symbol of what they wanted their players to be — tough on the field, play hard, win, and then off the field be active, be approachable.” Hicks says. “I wouldn’t say he defined a program. I would say he defined an Alabama player in the way Alabama fans would want an Alabama player (to carry himself ).”
When Stabler joined Eli Gold in the Alabama broadcast booth from 1998 to 2007, his image was raised to new heights.
But what were once considered youthful indiscretions with alcohol during his playing days ultimately caught up with 62-year-old Stabler after a third drunken-driving arrest in 2008.
“Despite some of the things that occurred off the field and outside the arena, he was able to keep his legacy above all of that,” says Senior Bowl executive director Phil Savage, who replaced Stabler as color analyst for Alabama games in 2009. “As one longtime Alabama fan said to me: ‘He was a great man and a bad boy.’ And I thought that put it pretty well.”