Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Robinson happy for team’s LV home
didn’t take long to realize how old that stadium was.
There was an emotional tie for me. … But then when the game’s over and you’re headed to the showers and not all the showers are working. I would hear some of my friends that came to the visiting locker room, they were like, “This is crazy, man.” Here we are standing here, waiting to get in line because this shower head isn’t working. Then when you get there, you gotta cup your hands for a couple of seconds so you can get enough water on your hands so you could splash it on your face.
And now the Las Vegas Raiders, the Davis family, Mark, his mom, they have their own stadium. That means a lot to me to know that that’s what Al wanted. So these young guys now, they have their own home.
And then, then you get to go to the headquarters. When I played for the Los Angeles Raiders, we played in El
Segundo — a little elementary school that Al took over. We’re sitting there. Talk about breakfast, lunch and dinner, OK? We’re sitting in those meetings and we’d hear that food truck hit that horn.
They’d turn off the projector and we’d go outside and get our lunch or get our breakfast and they did the same thing at lunchtime.
What do you think these current linebackers are going to bring to the team, specifically free-agent pickups Cory Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski? And what about the impact of new defensive line coach Rod Marinelli?
I’m excited about the additions. And Rod Marinelli, you’re talking about a legend here. You’re talking about — the man knows what he’s doing. And you know what the deal is? When you’re playing, when you’re playing the game, it’s the coach’s job to put you in the best position to be successful. And that’s what Marinelli does. It’s up to you as a ballplayer, as an individual, to make sure you execute it.
And it’s a great feeling — at least it was for me and I’m sure it is for everybody else who’s ever played the game — when you know that that defense is called, that’s the right defense. … And this offseason with Littleton, and I’m just going to call him Nick K. (laughs) and some other people. I’m excited to watch our defense. I’m excited to watch our whole football team ’cause we got something going on the offensive side. It’s just going to get, it’s going to get even better.
HF: JR:
In the Aug. 1, 1977, edition of Sports Illustrated, the one with kayakers on the cover — no, there wasn’t a pandemic at the time — the lead story contained sinister phrasing such as “wanton violence,” “gang warfare,” “criminal acts,” “happiness at pain” and “love of blood” in its opening paragraph.
Had it not been summertime, you would have sworn it was about the Philadelphia Flyers, the Broad Street Bullies, and not the opening gambit to William Oscar Johnson’s story about a 10-day trial in which the Raiders’ George Atkinson sued Steelers coach Chuck Noll for slander.
The $2 million dispute stemmed from Atkinson’s vicious blow away from the play late in the first half of the 1976 season opener that rendered unsuspecting Pittsburgh wide receiver Lynn Swann ineffective for the second half with a concussion.
Noll referred to Atkinson as “a criminal element” that should be banished from the NFL. Atkinson pressed charges. The trial was so outrageous that John Grisham couldn’t have dreamed it up. Five things worth noting about it:
Each side had as many attorneys as starting linebackers (three). Leading the Steelers’ defense was James Martin MacInnis, who had been the Hearst family’s first choice to defend Patty after she changed her name to Tania and joined the Symbionese Liberation Army. The Raiders countered with Willie Brown — not the Hall of Fame defensive back but the flamboyant barrister who suggested that by the time he was finished making his case “the question of pro football as we know it continuing to be played may very well be in doubt.”
A quote from one of the lawyers after lights were dimmed for another series of graphic instant replays: “I’m not gonna look at one more of those things unless it’s got some majorettes in it.”
Move over Atticus Finch: Atkinson attorney Daniel S. Mason grilled Noll to the point that the Steelers’ coach had to admit that Mel Blount, “Mean” Joe Greene, Ernie Holmes and Glen Edwards — his own players — belonged in the same category of violent players as Atkinson and the Raiders’ Jack Tatum.
Raiders owner Al Davis testified on Atkinson’s behalf wearing a silver tie and black suit.
After four hours of further review, this is what the jury decided: No slander. No malice. No damages for Atkinson. NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle fined him $1,500 for being a dirty player. Noll got docked $1,000 for criticizing another team’s player. And two guys shooting rapids in a kayak got their picture on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
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