The Oakland Raiders went from being one of the most feared in football to being laughed at by thirty one other teams. Stabler died Wednesday due to complications from colon cancer.
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Nicknamed “The Snake” for his elusiveness on the field, Stabler was involved in some of the greatest plays in Raiders history, ones so well known they merited their own monikers: “Ghost to the Post,” “Sea of Hands” and the “Holy Roller.”. “When you assume about the Raiders you believe about Ken Stabler”. On the field, Stabler earned four Pro Bowl trips, the league Most Valuable Player award in 1974 and guided Oakland to its first Super Bowl victory in the 1976-77 season, defeating the Minnesota Vikings 32-14. “While there have been many outstanding players in our great football history at Alabama, I think it´s safe to say that few -if any – connected with our fans in the way that Kenny did”, Alabama athletic director Bill Battle said in a statement. Stabler’s family released a statement through his foundation, saying he had been battling cancer since February.
He eventually settled down, with his wife Rose, to whom he was married for 25 years, and Stabler also has three daughters who survive him. He said, ‘Mark, I’m just getting in.’… “And we’d keep it close and, bingo, we’d win the game”.
In my travels all over the world, I always wore my Ken Stabler shirt. In 1974, he engineered a playoff victory against the Miami Dolphins when, while being tackled from behind, he lobbed a soft, awkward pass into the end zone.
Stabler trails Hall-of-Famer Terry Bradshaw’s career passing yardage by just 61 yards (27,989) and has also thrown for more yards than Bob Griese (25,092). The San Diego Chargers were about to beat the Raiders for only the second time in something like a decade. “It was a ball out on the left to Dave Casper. You’d go over here to tackle him and he’d be over there and so we found out pretty quickly what kind of athlete he was because we could hardly tackle him”, Crane recalled.
Mr. Stabler played 10years for the Raiders and is still the team’s all-time leader in passing yardage and touchdown passes. Mainly forgotten was his replacing starter Daryle Lamonica and leading the Raiders to what seemed to be the winning touchdown in the fourth quarter- until Franco Harris’ spectacular catch and run won it for Pittsburgh.
Kenneth Michael Stabler was born on Christmas Day 1945 in Foley, Alabama. He is preceded in death by his father, Leroy Stabler, and mother, Sally Stabler. He led the Crimson Tide to an undefeated season in 1966 was an All-American in 1967.
He said he was “amazed” by Stabler. “He and I had our problems”. Snake was a lot cooler that I was.
Former Alabama quarterback Jay Barker on Friday remembered one of his Tide predecessors.
The play was classic Stabler: Time ticking down. In 2006, he was sued by the federal government for more than $500,000 in back taxes. He meant so much to our program through his career here at Alabama and the awesome announcing that he did, play calling for the university.
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Three times, Stabler has been a finalist in NFL Hall of Fame voting, and three times he hasn’t made the cut. That is why he belongs in the Hall of Fame. To paraphrase, he essentially told ESPN that the tighter the situation got, the better he was.
