Badasses

The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders

By: Peter Richmond

Narrated by: Barry Abrams

Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

A book that explores the enduring legends of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death, and John Madden's Oakland Raiders, Badasses is the definitive biography of arguably the last team to play old-fashioned tough-guy football. Peter Richmond, co-author of the New York Times best seller The Glory Game, offers a fascinating look at the 1970s Oakland Raiders, led by colorful greats from another era: Ken Stabler, Willie Brown, Gene Upshaw, Jim Otto, Art Shell, head coach John Madden, and owner Al Davis. In the best-selling vein of Boys Will Be Boys, Badasses chronicles the bar-room exploits, practice-field pranks, and Super Bowl glories of the team's many misfits, cast-offs, psychos, and geniuses of the game.

©2010 Peter Richmond (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A celebration of the freewheeling NFL that created the multibillion dollar industry it is today." ( Booklist starred review)

My crew

I love my Raiders and always will I bleed black and silver they are a special group it has an honor and privilege to see them play wish them all the best thank you all for being the Oakland Raiders!!!!!

Mostly good but the conclusions by author are a mixed bag

What made John Madden’s Raider teams so special were their authenticity and the courage they had to be themselves and win on their own terms regardless of what others thought of them or how much/little those terms aligned with traditional values. The result was the creation of the most unique brand in all of professional sports: a franchise with a rebellious, unconventional and intense attitude unlike any other. The author does a good job of explaining this at times and at other times contradicts himself by criticizing the modern game as “selfish” when in fact it was the Raiders who celebrated the uniqueness and individuality of their players rather than trying to change and confirm them to a sterile homogeneous standard. Still it’s a good book and narrated well and I definitely recommend it.

Silver and Black

Good story but I did get tired of him, saying black and silver when it is silver and black. I lived in the Oakland area from 1960 to 1985. It was sad to see the Raiders go to Los Angeles and it was sad to see them go to Las Vegas. They’ll always be the Oakland Raiders for me when they went to Los Angeles and now in Las Vegas. Acabei de lhes chamar os Raiders, o orgulho dos Raiders de Oakland e o Poise A Commitment to Excellence

amazing stories

This book is an absolute must read for any Raider fan and any football fan will love this book as well

Just badass

Badass book about a badass team. Always heard a few stories from the Raiders of the 70's, but this is an awesome collection.

Great Book

The stories were great, these are stories from the Raiders of the 1970s. There are some wild stories to make you laugh.👍

True Raider history

Awesome. A great read for a Raider fan. Love it. You wont regret getting it

Madden's Raiders were like NO other!!!

Any additional comments?

Loved this book, grew up with Madden's Raiders as a kid. They were truly the pirates of the NFL..As kids we loved pirates!!!

This book did a great job of developing the character stories,"honestly" and for better or worse. It was a great ride, and you'll wonder how they ever survived...LOL

Enjoy!

It was Badass great. i gew up watching those games

It was Badass great. i gew up watching those games. And being a fanatic about the raiders. I eventually got to sit down with Kenny have drinks with him and talk about them good old days it was best day of my life outside my daughter being born

”Black & Silver” = Nails on a Chalkboard

Never done this before.
Stopped book just 3 mins. 20 sec.
Mr. Richmond, the author casually drops ”black & silver” into a passage about a book he never read.

The problem is that Raiders professionals and Raiders fans accept ”silver & black” as orthodox. NEVER ”black & silver.”

A minor point to be sure, but also a telling point. Because it has taken me just over 3 mins. into the book to lose faith in the author’s research.

What else is Mr. Richmond going to miss or gloss over? I’ll give the rest of the preface a chance. Perhaps Mr, Richmond will reveal that he’s gotten this fundamental phrase wrong on purpose, for some narratological reason.

But considering the fact that he’s already bragged about canonical books he has NOT read well, I am already weary of what Imve been sold.

UPDATE—I tried to tough it out in hopes of hearing perhaps 1 or 2 stories I’d never heard before. But I didn’t even make it to the 10 min mark. TWO MORE ”black & silvers” and some other small signs of ill-digested data repeatedly drew my mind back to a feeling of growing regret over having paid this author money for doing inadequate research and for being so self-satisfied about it. Mr. Richmond’s fuzzy-thinking narrative voice never regrets playing hookey instead of doing the rigorous research that would’ve justified the price of this book.

At least, this is my experience with the book’s first ten mins. That was enough—I already knew that I love the Raiders too much to endure more.

Caveat emptor - buyer beware here.