The Sports Xchange

ALAMEDA, Calif. — It will be more than an obligatory gesture when the family of former Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler ignites the Eternal Flame of late owner Al Davis before Sunday’s season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals at O.com Coliseum.

In fact, Stabler himself was scheduled to light the flame at this game, but the fabled Raiders quarterback succumbed to complications of colon cancer on July 8 at the age of 69.

Rather than change the plan, Al’s son and current Raiders owner Mark Davis preferred to pay homage to the storied relationship between the two men, a relationship known for years by many as one of acrimony.

It is almost unknown that these two Raiders icons made peace in 2009 when they met in Davis’ office.

They talked. They embraced. They shook hands. They agreed that their parting — when Stabler was traded to the Houston Oilers in March 1980 — might have cost the Raiders a couple of more Super Bowls.

Last year, Stabler recalled that meeting while talking with Tom LaMarre, who covered the Raiders for the Oakland Tribune during the 1970s, as they discussed elements of a book that was in works about the life and career of the man they called “The Snake.”

“It was a great meeting, I am really glad we finally got together and tried to heal some old wounds,” Stabler said of meeting with Davis.

“Al’s health was failing and he didn’t look great, but Al was still Al. He was sharp. We talked about games, players, plays. It was special because you knew he was getting near the end.”

Stabler, who might be the most revered Raider of them all to the Raider Nation, recalled one particularly poignant comment.

“He told me, ‘It’s my fault you are not in the Hall of Fame,'” Stabler said, adding that Davis went on to say: “We need to correct that. I need to work on that.”

Davis passed away two years later in October 2011. Stabler was among the select group of 100 people to attend funeral service in Oakland at Temple Beth Abraham.

Last month, Stabler was nominated by the Pro Football Hall of Fame Senior Committee to be a finalist for the Class of 2016. He needs 80 percent of the selectors to vote yes in their meeting the day before Super Bowl 50 in Santa Clara, Calif.

At Sunday’s lighting of the Al Davis Eternal Flame, among those representing Stabler will be his three daughters, Alexa, Marissa and Kendra, and his twin grandsons Jack and Justin Moyes, whom Snake watched play football last season at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Also on hand will be Kim Ross Bush, Stabler’s life partner the last 16 years. She was there when Stabler met Davis at Raiders headquarters in 2009.

“We were in Mr. Davis’ office and it was a little icy to start, like nobody knew what to say first,” Bush recalls. “Kenny went over to Al and they embraced. It was emotional. Mr. Davis started by talking to me, noting I was from Biloxi, Mississippi, and he spent time there in the military. He called me Miss Biloxi for the rest of the time. At the beginning, he talked to Kenny through me.

“We sat at a big table and Kenny called Mr. Davis ‘Coach.’ They talked for about 40 minutes non-stop, like two old friends. Mr. Davis said the game changed and it was harder to build a team. They talked about their good years together and then how it ended when Kenny wanted a trade and the Raiders traded him to Houston.”

She said the conversation seemed to get a little more emotional then.

“Mr. Davis pointed at the big ring from the Super Bowl,” Bush said, referencing the Raiders’ Super Bowl XI championship when Stabler was the quarterback. “Mr. Davis said, ‘I should have kept you. … we would have got a couple more of those.’

“Kenny sighed and said, ‘Yeah, I should have stayed.'”

This little-known meeting between Davis and Stabler might shock those who remember only their infamous feud that began about a year after that Super Bowl XI championship.

Unlike the meeting in 2009, the feud was not private.

When the Raiders were was struggling in 1978, headlines screamed that Davis said “blame Lefty, he makes the most money.”

In 1979, Stabler didn’t report on time on training camp. Asked if he could bury the hatchet and go to camp, Stabler said, “I’ll bury the hatchet — between his shoulder blades.”

So it was that Stabler demanded a trade and Davis finally obliged.

Stabler moved on the Oilers, whom he led to an 11-5 record in 1980 to match the most victories in franchise history at that time, and, of course, played against the Raiders in the first round of playoffs.

Oakland went on to win that Super Bowl (XV). Stabler moved to the New Orleans Saints, leading them to an 8-8 record in 1983, tying the franchise’s best record ever until then and finishing one game out of the playoffs.

The Snake retired after the 1984 season at the age of 39.

Stabler’s legacy is among the best in pro football. He won 100 games as a starting quarterback faster than anybody in NFL history up to that time, getting No. 100 in his 150th game (beating Johnny Unitas’ 153).

Since then he was surpassed only by Joe Montana (139 games) and Tom Brady (131).

Stabler is the only quarterback to lead a team to five consecutive conference championship games, and that was during the so-called Golden Era of the NFL (1973-1977). The Raiders were 56-13-1 over those five seasons, plus 7-4 in the postseason.

Stabler is the only quarterback to take three teams to their most number of season victories in franchise history — 1976 Raiders (15-1), 1980 Oilers (11-5) and 1983 Saints (8-8), although the Oilers and Saints later surpassed those marks.

When Stabler retired, his winning percentage of .661 was third among modern-era quarterbacks, behind Roger Staubach (.746) and Terry Bradshaw (.677).

It still stands seventh all-time, behind Hall of Famers Staubach, Bradshaw and Montana, and three quarterbacks still playing — Brady, Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger.

When the eternal flame is lit Sunday, two of the greatest figures in Raiders history will be linked one more time. Depending on the voting early next year, they still have a chance to be on the same team one more time in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

–Frank Cooney, founder and publisher of The Sports Xchange and NFLDraftScout.com, is in his sixth decade covering football, including the Oakland Raiders in the 1970s and 80s. He is a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and a member of the senior selection committee that nominated Stabler.