Las Vegas Raiders: Why the fans keep coming back every season
By Keith Ricci
Las Vegas Raiders: Why the fans keep coming back every season
A Glimmer of Hope is All it Takes
It’s only a matter of time, right? At some point, the Raiders will win again. Right? 40 years without a Super Bowl win, the odds are that it has to happen. Right?
Every time we’re down, the Raiders do just enough to suck us back in. All it takes is a glimmer of hope to accompany all that loyalty I talked about. Here’s a history of false hopes Raider Nation has endured over the last two decades.
The Raiders followed the Super Bowl loss in 2003, with a 4-win season and a 5-win season. While disappointing, we assumed the Raiders would bounce back like usual. Then, Al Davis traded for Randy Moss. This was future Hall of Famer Randy Moss in his prime!
After two failed seasons of Moss including the 2-14 Art Shell reunion tour, Moss was traded. But hope continued when the Raiders hired Lane Kiffin (who felt like Al’s next Gruden) and had the 1st overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft (JaMarcus Russell) followed by the 4th overall pick in 2008 (Darren McFadden).
Kiffin and Russell both failed and never appeared in the NFL ever again. Enter Tom Cable and then Hue Jackson who each stabilized things with a couple .500 record seasons. Even when Jason Campbell went down and the 4-2 Raiders brought in Carson Palmer, it felt like there was a return to relevance – a winning record and a big-name QB to save the season. But of course, no playoff appearance.
A few years later, Khalil Mack and Derek Carr became the faces of the franchise overnight. We were patient during 2014-15, knowing the team was building around both stars. It paid off in 2016 with a 12-4 record. Then 2017 was a disaster. But surely that 2016 team will come out to play at some point! Gruden comes home. We all agree to be patient because our coach is back.
Gruden resigns in 2021. You know everything that happened that season. Then, in 2022, the best wide receiver in the league becomes a Raider, and the team bombs.
You lived through all of that. Even after reading all of those false hopes that led to disappointments, which seemingly happened like clockwork the last 20 years, you know you’re still excited for the 2023 season where there’s a QB1 opening and a lot of cap space to improve the roster. They did it again. That glimmer of hope.