Raider fanatics have never experienced an identity crisis. They’ve always been the bad guys. With their painted faces, spikes, masks, tattoos and other scary paraphernalia, Oakland fans have never exuded anything but fear and nastiness. It has come to the point where the rest of the football world looks at them as a bunch of rowdy and rough scofflaws who love to start fights.
The Black Hole fan club is tired of that image. In the wake of Al Davis’ passing and the team’s resurgence, the fans have also taken a different tone. They’re trying to be the good guys for a change.
“We are tired of being the whipping boy of the Bay Area and people thinking we are a bunch of criminals,” Rob Rivera, the president of the Black Hole fan club, said according to The Post game. “We are not.”
The club has hired Ken Sarna of High Point Sports and Entertainment to assist in creating a positive image. They’ve also been spreading goodwill. They raised a $1,000 reward to catch the killer of a local restaurant owner, donated $600 to a preschool in need, and initiated the “Solidarity Campaign to Black Out Violence” this weekend with the aim of preventing violence.
The campaign moves have no doubt come, in part, as a reaction to all the negative stories attributed to Silver and Black fans lately. Raider fans were recently banned from a barand took part in a fight at Candlestick park during a preseason game against the 49ers. There was also a recent shooting in a stadium parking lot that helped fuel the fire.
It will take a lot of time and effort to change public perception, but for group like the Black Hole that is tired of being viewed as ex-convicts, it’s certainly a start.
