RIP Ken Stabler

When I was a teenager, I knew that if I turned on the TV Sunday at 6:45, Kenny Stabler was taking the Raiders down the field and beating someone at the buzzer. I always thought that if I needed a quarterback to win a game in the final two minutes, Stabler was my guy. I never fell in love with the Raiders, but I was a huge Stabler fan. RIP.

 

Outing alert! trifectarich is John Madden. Perfect Raider, indeed.

Madden bids farewell to the ‘perfect Raider,’ Ken Stabler | CSN Bay Area

"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. Snake was a lot cooler that I was. He was a perfect quarterback and a perfect Raider."

 

I wish Charlie Jones would do his eulogy.

 

Stabler being Stabler, I hope he died doing what he loved.

 

An underrated color man on TBS' SEC broadcasts, and later the Alabama radio network, before the latter parted ways after discovering he was living life like Ken Stabler. RIP

 

BYH killed him.

 

Big game player. The ghost-to-the-post game against the Bert Jones" Colts on Christmas Eve 1977 was one of the top few NFL games I've ever seen.

 

Who?

 

Damn, too bad. Growing up in the Bay Area in the 70's, Stabler was the essence of cool; that side arm lefty spiral. I watched him lead the Raiders to another win while wearing my Sears 49er helmet and hoping the 49ers would get someone like him (Spurrier to Plunkett to DeBerg, ugh, then Montana happened)

 

Great. That's another championship they'll put on their resumé.

 

With one of those incompletions being a likely touchdown pass that hit the goalpost.