A short blog post about the Oakland Raiders’ final 2015 home game, the last game for Raiders legend Charles Woodson to play in. It was announced that the Raiders were highly likely to move to Las Vegas.
OAKLAND, Calif. -- All week long, the forecast called for water to be pouring down during the Oakland Raiders’ final home game against the San Diego Chargers on Christmas Eve. Poor weather stations though, little did they know nothing could rain on Charles Woodson’s retirement parade. So naturally, as if the football gods pulled away all the clouds and fog that seem to live in the Bay Area skies this time of year, just for the night, the moon was beaming down onto O.co coliseum for Mr. Woodson’s swan song.
The stadium was filled with children, adults, and elderly all dressed in silver and black on a day where red and green was supposed to fill the air. It was radiating with the emotional bond each of the thousands of people there felt they shared with Woodson. As he ran out the tunnel, arms spread wide as if he about to give the Raider Nation one last hug before he went out, the cheers, just for a moment, masked the inevitable. The finality of the moment was a sight for the decades — one last game in the city Al Davis abandoned only to be welcomed back with open arms, one last game for the player Al Davis abandoned only to be welcomed back with open arms.
Woodson’s pregame speech was indicative of the night — one which millions of people’s wishes came true throughout the country, yet on this night, in this parking lot in Oakland, California, thousands of fans echoed the same wish this Christmas — ”Please stay Woodson. Please stay Raiders”. Hundreds of signs filled the stadium in the hope that Santa might see one of them as he made his yearly rounds in the sky. This unfortunately, is a wish that even Santa cannot grant (unless, of course, Santa has 500 million dollars to give Mark Davis for a stadium in Oakland). Woodson knew that he couldn’t hog the moment though, “This is bigger than me, this is bigger than you, but it is not bigger than us”, he pleaded into the microphone for all to hear.
Las Vegas was calling, but for tonight, the focus was on the present. One last hurrah for the fans that have endured over a decade of dismal excuses for football, only to be stripped of the light at the end of the tunnel by a city promising all the glitz and glory, but none of the heart.