Oakland might see last Raiders home game on Monday

On Christmas Eve, two teams with little but pride to play for will get on a football field in Oakland. The game will mean everything and nothing at the same time.

For the visiting Denver Broncos, it’s the final road tilt of the year before making one more appearance in Mile High. For the Oakland Raiders, it could very well be the last time they play as such, with legions of long-time fans potentially saying farewell.

It’s not the first time the Raiders have put their fans through this particular type of hell. A few years ago, there were ample rumors that Oakland would be headed for Los Angeles alongside either the Rams or Chargers. Of course, it was the Raiders who were the odd team out in that scenario. Eventually, owner Mark Davis found a willing city in Las Vegas, which has long been trying to work its way into professional sports.

Now, with the City of Oakland filing a lawsuit against the Raiders for damages, it’s likely that the team goes elsewhere for the 2019 season before finally getting to Sin City. Davis is reportedly looking into playing the Raiders’ home games at AT&T Park, which until now has exclusively been used by MLB’s San Francisco Giants, save for a college bowl game here and there.

Regardless, all of it is so sad. The Raiders are one of the most storied franchises in the NFL and have been since they merged out of the American Football League in 1970. Prior to the merger, they were already highly-regarded thanks to owner Al Davis and their appearance in Super Bowl II.

Since then, the Raiders have won three Super Bowls, taking home the Lombardi Trophy in 1976, ’80 and ’83. While the current century has mostly been about pain and embarrassment for the franchise and its fans, this remains one of the great teams in sports.

All that said, the fans have been every bit as great. Oakland has supported the Raiders ardently despite all the lackluster performances we’ve seen since the last Super Bowl appearance in 2002. There has only been one winning season and one playoff appearance in that span, all while the team plays in one of America’s worst sporting venues, the Oakland Coliseum. None of that has kept the fans away, and yet Davis is going to move the team because a new stadium couldn’t be worked out.

Ultimately, this is business, but it’s a black eye for both Davis and the NFL. Should the city win its lawsuit, Davis is going to be out millions and plenty of credibility, while Oakland is without the Raiders for the second time since 1960. Yes, the team move once before when Al owned it, leaving for Los Angeles in 1982 before coming back in 1995.

Hopefully for the fans in Oakland, this isn’t goodbye. If it is, they deserve much, much better.