Raiders Forever

Loved reading about the old Raider Days and the great players from that era. The book profiles all the big name players like Stabler and shows what made them great.

This is a book that truly captures the spirit of The Oakland Raiders of the 1970's. Best of all you come away with a deeper sense of the personalities and what made the team so unique. It is not just a "remember when" book, but rather a behind the scenes look at why the Raiders where the most compelling team of the 70's. It's well written, full of detail and should be interesting to any football fan.

Raiders Forever is a must read for any Raiders fan. I'll never forget the glory days of the 60's and 70's - guys like Stabler, Madden, Van Egan, etc. After you read this book, you realize they never will either. The author finds all our old favorites, spread out all over the country now, and they reminisce about what it was like to be a Raider back in the good old days. It's fun to hear them as they look back, tell a story or two, and fill us in on what they're doing now. This is a great book about a great team. Highly recommended!

What I enjoyed the most about this book is what it offers for different Raider fans in all walks of life. If you are a hardcore Raider fan, then you will find it interesting in how deep the author goes into each old time players' history to get to the very soul of each individual player. If you are a newer fan, then it gives you a look into Raider tradition and pride. If you are a peripheral fan, or a football fan overall, then it gives you an excellent look into the life of a football player.If you ever wondered what is Ray Guy doing now? or how does Art Shell feel about the Raiders? or how does John Madden recall his coaching days? then you will find a plethora of information that makes this book hard to put down. I know being a Raider fan makes me a little unbalanced in my opinion (as well as in the mind of fans of the AFC West), but you find this book interesting even if you don't like the Raiders if you take it at face value.

I'm a football fan, and like any football fan who was around at the time, I have fond memories of the Oakland Raiders of the 1970's. Raiders Forever is much more than a simple recounting of the "Glory Days", rehashing the same old stories we're all familiar with by now. It is instead a compilation of conversations between the author and each member of the core group of Raiders(19 in all). Each player is encouraged to reflect on the team, and his role in it, and in this way, is the Raider's mistique defined. What turns out to be as interesting and important as their recollections, are the circumstances and places where these conversations take place. The author has tracked each player down and met them on their own turf, and it is fascinating to see where their life has taken them, and how the being a Raider has helped(or didn't help) them get there.The author provides us with plenty of background information on each player as well, some of it surprising. Each player's complete Pro stats are at the end of each chapter. By the time I was finished reading a chapter, I had a good sense of where these people came from, who they were then, and who they are now. To me, it offers a more personal insight on what it was, and is, to be a Raider.This is a well written book with a unique and fresh approach to an oft told story.