My All-time Oakland Raiders Team

When my brother, George Coley, a lifelong Oakland Raiders fan, recently sent me a humorous e-mail along with some excellent photos about those, dedicated, one-of-a-kind Raiders lifers, I decided to forget the Raiders present troubles and put this column together naming my all-time Oakland Raiders team, many of whom could probably start on Oakland's current team. So, enough with the chitchat, here we go.

Quarterback: Ken "The Snake" Stabler
I remember watching my brother pretend he was Stabler as if it were yesterday (although it was actually three decades ago) and firmly believe that Stabler is the greatest quarterback in Raider history. It's a shame he's not still playing too, because the current Raiders team needs a quarterback in the worst way, and the south paw slinger was as smooth as they come.

Running Backs: Marcus Allen and Bo Jackson
Allen is undeniably the greatest Raiders rusher of all-time and one of the game's best ever as well. I thought long and hard about the other Raiders running back and I had to select Bo Jackson, although I really wanted to put Mark Van Eeghan ahead of him.

Jackson may have gone down as one of the all-time greats as well had in not been for his freak hip injury which eventually led to his retirement from professional sports altogether.

Wide Receiver: Tim Brown, Fred Biletnikoff and Cliff Branch
I know I have three receivers here where there are only supposed to be two, but I couldn't, in good conscious, leave any of this trio off the list no matter how hard I tried. Brown and Biletnikoff are Hall of Famers, but it is Branch who is hands-down, the Raiders greatest deep threat of all-time.

Tight End: Dave Casper
No offense to Todd Christensen, who was an outstanding player in his era but there is only one "Ghost." Casper routinely made the spectacular look mundane, all during an era when teams ran the ball much more and didn't utilize the tight end nearly as much as they do in today's pass happy times.