The Las Vegas Raiders have been a laughingstock for the previous twenty years, and it’s subsequently straightforward to neglect that they had been as soon as one of many NFL’s extra iconic franchises.
Again within the Nineteen Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties, the workforce, which was then primarily based in Oakland, Calif., received a few Tremendous Bowl championships, and it did so with the assistance of a robust offensive line that included sort out John Vella.
Vella has reportedly handed away, and the Raiders group issued an announcement.
pic.twitter.com/Uxiq3foKOl
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) April 2, 2025
Vella was drafted by the Raiders within the second spherical of the 1972 NFL Draft out of the College of Southern California, the place he performed each soccer and baseball and was even a member of the 1970 Trojans workforce that received the School World Sequence.
When he got here to Oakland, that they had already been a reasonably aggressive workforce beneath head coach John Madden, and they’d proceed to be aggressive, as they reached the AFC Championship Sport in 1973, 1974 and 1975.
They misplaced there on every of these three events earlier than they lastly went all the best way in 1976 after posting a 13-1 common season document.
However afterward, accidents slowed him down, and he left to play for the Minnesota Vikings within the 1980 season, the identical season the Raiders received their second Vince Lombardi Trophy.
After retiring following the 1980 marketing campaign, Vella began a Raiders merch retailer in Alameda County in 1987, at a time when the franchise had entrenched itself in Los Angeles following its transfer there in 1982.
It took some time, however the enterprise began to take off as soon as the Raiders returned to Oakland within the mid-Nineteen Nineties.
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