04/24/24
July 09, 2015
Oakland Raiders Great Kenny 'The Snake' Stabler Dies: Oakland Raiders quarterback Kenny "the Snake" Stabler has died of complications from colon cancer, according to his family. He was 69. "He quietly battled Stage 4 colon cancer since being diagnosed in February 2015," his family said in a statement on Facebook. Drafted in the second round of the 1968 NFL Draft by Oakland from the University of Alabama, Stabler played 10 seasons, winning a Super Bowl in 1977 under head coach John Madden. Madden said, "If I had one drive to win a game to this day, and I had a quarterback to pick, I would pick Kenny. Snake was a lot cooler that I was. He was a perfect quarterback and a perfect Raider. When you think about the Raiders you think about Ken Stabler."
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posted by Howard_T at 11:07 PM on July 10, 2015
What a drag. I loved the Raiders even before Madden got there. Their league title game against the Oilers that sent them to SB II made a religion out of the old AFL for me. Just completely captured my imagination.
When the Raiders first took out Lamonica and put Stabler in a game, I was thinking, WTF? A left handed guy I had never seen play in the pros before? The first pass I saw him throw changed my mind right away. He threw such a pretty ball. The mechanics, the way that tight spiral came out, the accuracy...I could watch that all day. He didn't sling the ball. He directed it.
When people ask me "when were the 70's over?", sometimes I reply: "when the Raiders traded Ken Stabler to Houston for Dan freaking Pastorini".