To call the Las Vegas Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs just an AFC West rivalry would be selling it short and leaving out a few key pieces of history, to say the least; these two franchises have been at it since the old AFL days. The Hunt and Davis families are friendly off the field, but mortal enemies on it.
Just as much as the Raiders and their fanbase are taught to loathe that shade of... orange? Red? What even is it? Anyway. Chiefs fans are also taught to hate the color black. These two teams have battled since before JFK was president or the Beatles were a big band. Before Sprite was invented.
Simply put, Sunday's game was always going to mean a lot. Now that these two teams are both 3-0 heading into the Week 4 bout, though, it means even more. Let's take a look back at this storied rivalry before watching Klint Kubiak's and Andy Reid's time author another chapter.
Chiefs lead Raiders 76-56-2 in all-time series
Given how bad the Silver and Black have been for the last quarter-century, of course they trail in the all-time series. And again, as referenced earlier, these two teams have been playing each other twice a year longer than a lot of you readers have been alive. This predates us and will postdate us.
It all started in 1960, when the Chiefs were the Dallas Texans, and the Raiders were in Oakland, the first time. Those Dallas Texans won five of the first six matchups between the two organizations, but things evened out a bit when they relocated and rebranded to the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963.
This was a back-and-forth rivalry for a few years until Al Davis moved on from being head coach and moved up to the general manager suite. Then, the Raiders dominated for years, winning eight of the next nine contests, including a playoff bout. More on that in just a moment!
The next great Raiders stretch began in 1973, as the Silver and Black won 10 of their 11 matchups through the end of the 1978 season. Of course, Oakland won its first Super Bowl in that time, so the Raiders were on top of this rivalry and the football world.
Kansas City responded by winning five of the next six before dropping five in a row and 11 of the next 15. Then, it becomes clear why the Chiefs lead on the all-time scoreboard. They won six straight from 1990 to 1992, and 17 of the 19 games played in the 1990s, including a playoff victory in 1991.
At the turn of the century, the Raiders figured things out again, winning five in a row and six out of seven before fulling handing the reins back to the Chiefs, who, from 2003 to October 2007, did not lose to Oakland. It was back and forth after that until 2014, when Kansas City fully took over.
Since December of 2014, the Chiefs have lost just four times to the Raiders, and one of them, as we will also cover in a minute, wasn't really a regular season game. Oakland/Las Vegas is 4-19 against Kansas City since 2014 and has sustained losing streaks of 5, 5, 6 and 3 in that span.
Signature moment: Raiders dismantle Chiefs in 1968 AFL division playoff game
The signature moment has to be the Silver and Black's lone postseason victory over the Chiefs, right? Well, if that's the case, we've got to go all the way back to 1968 and talk about the AFL division playoff game, with a chance to play in the league championship on the line.
After splitting the two regular-season meetings and finishing with identical 12-2 records, the Raiders won a coin toss to be the home team and hosted the Chiefs at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. And that coin toss was a harbinger of what was to come for Kansas City.
Hank Stram's team never put up a fight in this one, as John Rauch's squad put up 21 straight points in the first quarter before the Chiefs even woke up. Daryle Lamonica diced up Kansas City, finding Fred Biletnikoff for two first-quarter passing touchdowns and Warren Wells for another.
Following two Chiefs field goals to make it 21-6, Lamonica threw another touchdown to Biletnikoff, and another touchdown to Wells. George Blanda put things on ice with two field goals, and the Raiders finished on the right side of a lopsided 41-6 score.
For the Silver and Black, Lamonica had 347 yards and 5 touchdowns, three to Biletnikoff and two to Wells, who had 180 and 93 receiving yards, respectively. A mad bomber, indeed. Charlie Smith had 126 scrimmage yards and Pete Banaszak had 19 rushing yards.
Len Dawson threw four interceptions for the Chiefs, one each to Willie Brown, Dan Conners, Jerry Hopkins and Nemiah Wilson. What was supposed to be a closely contested grudge match turned into absolute obliteration for the Raiders, and it's hard not to feel like that is the biggest triumph over KC.
Then, the Heidi Game was the next week...
Last time around: Las Vegas beats Kansas City in 2025 finale that looked like a preseason game
We take a complete 180 from the most legendary game between these two teams, at least from the Raiders' side of things, to bring you perhaps the least interesting game between the two franchises. This one took place in the final week of the 2025 NFL season, one to forget for both teams.
Las Vegas had locked up the No. 1 pick in the draft before kickoff, and the Chiefs were without both starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes and backup Gardner Minshew II. The Raiders were without Geno Smith, Maxx Crosby, Brock Bowers, Jeremy Chinn and others. It was a true backup bowl.
And as one would expect in such a game, no touchdowns were scored in the 14-12 Raiders victory. Daniel Carlson made four field goals for Las Vegas and Tyree Wilson safetied Shane Buechele to get the Silver and Black to 14, and Harrison Butker striped four field goals for Kansas City.
This was a complete snoozer of a game, especially because it had no tanking implications for the Raiders. The final stats are... underwhelming, but I will still share them. Kenny Pickett went 1-for-4 with an interception and Aidan O'Connell went 10-for-22 for 102 yards.
Kansas City's quarterbacks combined to go 18-for-31 for 146 yards and eight sacks taken. Ashton Jeanty had 94 scrimmage yards, and the Chiefs' Brashard Smith had 58. The highlight was the defense, as Tyree Wilson, Charles Snowden and Tonka Hemingway all had 2.0 sacks apiece.
A complete snoozer, but a win over the Chiefs is a win over the Chiefs. Let's hope Sunday is nothing like that.
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