The familiar face will be there on the other side of the chain link fence. She always is. She wears black, of course, head to toe in Raiders gear as far as you can see. She screams.
Shes proud of her Raiders, even now that theyre ditching Oakland and the Coliseum that long ago turned into a dump. Its a charming dump, and the dateline for some of the wildest stories in the NFL. Those stories deserve to be remembered. Like this one, about the woman in the apron.
She really is loud. Shell grab the fence and pull it and push it and scream until you have no choice but to look over. Shes developed impeccable timing over the years, a true pro, so just when she sees enough faces the apron flies up and out pops a very, very, very large sex toy.
A big tomahawk, Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt said, approximating its shape.
The Chiefs played their 43rd and final game in the old hellhole on Sunday. On account of them sharing a division with the Raiders, plus two playoff games (more on that in a minute), theyve played there more than any other visiting team in the NFL. If they win, they will have done so more than any other opponent.
It will be the last NFL game played on dirt. The Raiders next home game is Nov. 3, and the grounds crew replaces the infield dirt with grass after baseball.
The Coliseum has gone through two iterations of the Raiders, seven names (technically, it is now RingCentral Coliseum, but come on), 321 football games, more than 4,000 baseball games, the last ever Led Zeppelin concert and more Grateful Dead shows than anywhere else on the planet.
It is the fourth-oldest stadium in the NFL, and might have more stories to tell than any of them. Some of them are directly tied to great teams and games the Raiders have more Hall of Fame players than any team but the Bears.
Others are more about a stadium that has become one of the most colorful characters in the league from leaky pipes to a field that smells of sewage to balloons full of urine.
The Raiders are scheduled to play their games in Las Vegas next year, next to a casino, in a $1.8 billion stadium with retractable windows facing the Strip. There will be no urine balloons, and something real will have been lost forever.
Cant say Ill miss the Coliseum, Chiefs long snapper James Winchester said. But Im glad Ive had the opportunity to play there.
The Chiefs and Raiders hate each other, always have, but more than that they love to hate each other. You probably know this if you live in Kansas City or Oakland, but youre here already so we present a quick story from the Coliseum that encapsulates the whole thing.
The Chiefs beat the Raiders 17-7 in the AFC Championship Game after the 1969 season. It was the first time the Raiders lost a home playoff game, and it would be five years before they lost another. Even today, the Raiders have lost just three playoff games at the Coliseum.
But the win is mere setup for what Hall of Famer Len Dawson will tell you is one of the greatest moments in Chiefs history.
In those days, just one week separated the conference title games and the Super Bowl. The Raiders had beaten the Chiefs twice that season already, so the plan was to win once more, then travel directly from the Coliseum to the Super Bowl site in New Orleans.
