Count one Oakland Raider legend as surprised and skeptical at the franchise’s impending move to Las Vegas.
John Madden, who coached the Raiders from 1969 to 1978 and won a Super Bowl with them, admitted he was shocked by the move and the overwhelming report it received within the NFL.
“I didn’t think that that would happen and when they got a vote of 31-1, I was really shocked and I was surprised not only that it happened, but how quickly that it happened,” Madden told SiriusXM’s Hall of Fame Radio. “And I’m not sure that they have that whole deal together yet. I’m not sure that they even know exactly what this stadium is — how many (seats it has), where it’s going to be and all those things.”
Madden is definitely one of those who believes a team in Las Vegas will pose many unique and difficult distractions.
“I would hate to be a coach to take a team in there,” Madden said. “I would hate to have my team be in Las Vegas on Saturday night before the game. And that’s any team. You say, ‘Well, you had a bunch of rowdies,’ but every team has a bottom 10. You can say, ‘Oh, we got a good group, it’s a great group, we’re together,’ and all this stuff. Say you have 55 guys. 45 of them can be perfect, but you’ve got that bottom 10. And you have to be as good as your last guy. If this thing goes through, I think there’s going to be a lot of problems like that.”
Madden admitted that he was sad to see the Raiders leave, because this is likely the end of NFL football in Oakland for quite some time.
“With the stadium now, when they move out, that’s going to be torn down and it’s going to be a high-rise or some doggone thing and there’ll be no more Oakland Raiders, there’ll be no more history of the Oakland Raiders,” Madden said. “That really bothers me.”
Madden’s fears about Vegas are shared by at least one current player. You can understand his sadness, though. He’s a huge part of Oakland Raider history, and now that franchise is packing it up and moving elsewhere.
