Field judge Jimmy Cole (86) and Oakland and Steelers players rush in to break up a squabble between and Raiders John Vella (75) and the Steelers Jack Lambert (58) following the first Oakland touchdown in Sunday?s AFC championship game in Oakland on Dec.26, 1976. (AP Photo)
The Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers play Sunday at O.co Coliseum. They probably think it will be a tough game.
Maybe it will be. But it won't be as tough as the Raiders-Steelers games of 40 years ago.
I'm thinking here about the 1974 AFC championship game, won by Pittsburgh.
After one play, Steelers defensive lineman Mean Joe Greene blatantly kicked Oakland center Jim Otto in the groin -- just moments after Pittsburgh defender Ernie Holmes spit in the face of Raiders offensive lineman Gene Upshaw at the bottom of the pile.
No penalty flags were thrown on either play. If they had been, Greene or Otto probably would have picked up the yellow hankies and chewed them into tiny bits of fabric, then forced the referees to swallow the pieces. Those old Raiders and Steelers didn't want anyone to get in the way of their mutual animosity.
I bring this up today for several reasons.
One, before Sunday's game, current Raiders and Steelers players would do well to study up on the rivalry's rich history during the 1970s -- and do their best to resurrect it. At the moment, both teams are scuffling along with 2-4 records, searching for their identities.
Two, my hunch is that zero members of the two teams' active rosters could identify a picture of Rocky Bleier or Phil Villapiano. Someone should tell those current players that if only in terms of inspiration, they can learn much more from old game films than new video games.
And three, it is laughable to hear the commentators of 2013 talk about the "fierce" rivalries between the Patriots and Jets, or the 49ers and Seahawks, or whichever overhyped matchup is this week's game of the century.
Who are they kidding? Nothing exists today that equals those legendary Raiders-Steelers matchups, with Hall of Famers on both sides of the ball. Beginning in 1972, the teams met in playoff games for five consecutive seasons. The Steelers won three of the five. The most famous was the "Immaculate Reception" game of 1972. But each one had its unforgettable stories.
The rivalry's best moments enrich several chapters in a new book by Bay Area author Gary Pomerantz, "Their Life's Work." It documents the 1970s Steelers dynasty with new interviews of the team's principal personalities and numerous opponents. The other night at a book-release party in San Francisco, former offensive linemen John Vella of the Raiders and Gordon Gravelle of the Steelers showed up to spin some stories about those days.
"If it weren't for the Steelers," Vella said, "we would have had five Super Bowl rings in the '70s instead of one."
Not that he remains bitter about it or anything.
Vella said there was nothing quite like waking up on the morning of a Raiders-Steelers game.
"I knew I was going to get in a fight that day," Vella said with a chuckle, as Gravelle nodded.
As Pomerantz unearthed during his research, the Raiders in many ways drove the Steelers to excellence. At any point during a given season, Pittsburgh coaches would challenge and fire up their receivers by looping up film of them being manhandled or embarrassed by Raiders defensive backs.
There are also fun anecdotes like this one: In a 1973 playoff game at the Coliseum, the Steelers insisted the Raiders kept sending in half-deflated balls onto the field whenever Pittsburgh tried a field goal -- with the words "Go Raiders!" scrawled on the ball.
Especially delicious, however, is a chapter about the 1977 trial when the rivalry spilled over into the courtroom. Steelers coach Chuck Noll was sued for slander by Raiders defensive back George Atkinson. The previous year after a regular-season game, Noll had accused Atkinson of a dirty hit and said: "You have a criminal element in every society, and apparently we have it here in the NFL, too."
Atkinson's attorney was Willie Brown, the future San Francisco mayor who in his opening statement accused the Steelers of being "the leading cheap-shot artists in pro football."
Testimony was given by players on both teams. Films of NFL violence were shown in the courtroom. The jury found Noll not guilty.
Can you imagine such a trial today -- say, if Richard Sherman sued Jim Harbaugh for slander -- or the wall-to-wall media attention it would generate?
Gravelle was asked to compare the Steelers-Raiders dynamic to the current 49ers-Seahawks enmity, especially between coaches Harbaugh and Pete Carroll. Gravelle said the analogy doesn't really hold.
"Chuck Noll didn't hate John Madden at all," Gordon said. "Noll just thought Al Davis was an ... " Davis would probably be proud to hear it.
Vella acknowledged that recent 49ers-Seattle games have indeed been quite passionate and hard-hitting, with terrific rivalry potential.
"But that's been just two years," Vella said. "Give me five or 10 years of that, and then we'll talk about it."
Likewise for the Raiders and Steelers. Last year, they played a fairly intense game at O.co that ended in a 34-31 Raiders victory. Let's see if they can duplicate that Sunday -- and then do it in the playoffs for five straight years. Then we'll talk about it.
Contact Mark Purdy at mpurdy@mercurynews.com. Follow him on Twitter attwitter.com/MercPurdy.
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