The first feeling is that if you grew up watching the Los Angeles Raiders and then watched the team leave, you'd be sad. Sure, you had the Silver and Black for over a decade. You got to see a team that at the start could not be beat, but then went on a roller coaster ride from the end of the Flores Era to the Art Shell/Bo Jackson Show. Those were some great times.
Secondly, you have to feel sorry for Ice Cube. He never got to taste what the real Raiders were like, the ones that thrived before the move to L.A. He does mention watching the great 1980 Super Bowl win, but he forgets that the team existed long before L.A. was begging for a club. L.A., for all its fickle fans, lost the Rams first to Anaheim and that set the stage for the Raiders to move.
But it also shows a perspective that gives an inclination on how large of a fanbase the Raiders have in Raider Nation. Some teams pride themselves on only the good years; say, the Tampa Bay Bucs or the New England Patriots. There's a smattering of fans that might remember that Jim Plunkett was a quarterback for them back in the mid 1970s, but most only know of Tom Brady.
For the Raiders fans, there's three different stages, possibly a fourth.
The first stage is made of up of the sages of wisdom. They put their kids to bed with stories of how Jim Otto would stand up an entire defensive line while injured . How Daryle Lamonica would get that look and chuck it 80 yards down the field, just to loosen up. Or about the 1967 season, when the Raiders, backed by Lamonica, Blanda, Biletnikoff, and Otto, won the AFL title.
Glory days, truly.
This stage would witness two Super Bowls, including the 1976 win over the Vikings and as a last treat, the 1980 win over the Eagles. Again, great things.
