While you’re reading my column this week, I’m down tailgating at SoFi Stadium for the opening day of 2024 NFL football. My bro-friend and I go to Las Vegas usually two-to-three times a year and it’s on our bucket lists to go to a Raiders game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Problem is the Raiders charge the highest per-game NFL ticket prices, plus Las Vegas hotels jack up the rates when the Raiders have a home game. Cheap seats for a Raiders home game are $400-plus per ticket. So today we get to watch Garner Minshew III quarterback the Raiders against the Chargers.

Growing up, I used to be a Raiders fanatic. My aunt was a surgical nurse at Contra Costa Hospital and my Christmas gift most years was Raiders’ playoff tickets. The Greyhound bus ride to the Bay Area sucked, but that’s what we did back in the day when you grew up dirt poor. The ’70s and ’80s were the Raiders golden years, when they used to make the playoffs almost every year. Sadly, since they got blown out in the 2002 Super Bowl, the Raiders have had only two winning seasons and only made the playoffs twice in the past 20 years and lost both Wildcard Weekend playoff games.

Quite the difference from my first Raiders game, the December 1974 “Sea of Hands” playoff win over the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Miami Dolphins. Late in the 4th quarter with only 0:35 seconds left, Kenny “The Snake” Stabler was tripped up and while falling down, threw a pass into triple-coverage to Clarence Davis, who somehow caught the ball while being mauled by four Dolphins.

Women laugh at men because we can’t remember what they said to us yesterday, however, we can vividly recall a football game from almost 50 years ago. I was there at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1976 when the Raiders finally beat the Steelers in the AFC championship game to progress to their second Super Bowl. I was there at “The Murph” in January 1981, when the Raiders came to San Diego and beat a loaded Chargers team with Dan Fouts, John Jefferson, Charlie Joiner, Kellen Winslow and Chuck Muncie to advance to their third Super Bowl. I was one of only 500 Raiders fans at Jack Murphy Stadium that day, wearing my Raiders black jersey and getting pelted with popcorn, hot dogs and beer all game long, while I just kept pointing to the scoreboard. The Raiders were the first of seven wildcard teams to win a Super Bowl. Name the other six teams.

The NFL is the most popular sport in America with NCAA college football close behind. The Kansas City Chiefs are vying for to be the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowls and Taylor Swift’s boyfriend wants his fourth ring

The Super Bowl started in 1966 as the championship game between the old NFC and the new AFC teams. The are four teams that have never been to a Super Bowl: Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and the Houston Texans. The Texans were a 2002 expansion team and are the only team to have never won a road playoff game, nor play in a conference championship game. The Jaguars were a 1995 expansion team (along with the Carolina Panthers). The Browns joined the NFL in 1950 and had success with the old NFL winning the championship in 1950, 1954, 1955 and 1964. Since then, it’s been tough to be a Browns fan. The Browns are the only NFL team without a logo on their helmets. The Lions joined the NFL in 1930. They won the NFL championship in 1935, 1952, 1953 and 1957. Then it got really hard to be a Lions fan until last year.

Every year there are six teams that didn’t make the playoffs the year before that are now in the playoffs and six teams who you thought were gonna do something who don’t make the playoffs. That’s the NFL and why it’s the most popular sport. Any given Sunday your team can be somebody. Except the New England Patriots, who suck without Tom Brady.

Enjoy watching Aaron Rodgers leading the New York Jets at the San Francisco 49ers Monday night!

(Wild card teams that won the Super Bowl: 1980 Oakland Raiders, 1997 Denver Broncos, 2000 Baltimore Ravens, 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers, 2007 New York Giants, 2010 Green Bay Packers, 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.)

Matthew Owen resides in Eureka and believes the First Amendment allows for free speech. He can be reached at mowen707@gmail.com.