One of my criteria for deciding if a guy should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame is, “Can you tell the NFL story without him?” You can’t tell the NFL’s story without Kenny “The Snake” Stabler. Stabler died Wednesday due to complications from colon cancer. He was 69.
Stabler was a Super Bowl Champion, twice led the NFL in touchdown passes and was the 1974 Associate Press Offensive Player of the Year and NFL MVP. In addition to that, he was involved in two of the most famous plays in the history of the NFL, both so crazy, so miraculous that they demanded religiously inspired names.
The first one came in the 1972 playoffs. It was the only significant action Stabler had that season after being drafted in the second round by the Oakland Raiders in 1968. The Raiders were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers and trailed 6-0 and starter Stabler was called into service to replace starter Daryle Lamonica. Stabler would lead the Raiders to the only touchdown they scored in the game and capped the drive with a 30-yard scramble for a score.
With 22 seconds left in the game the Raiders had the lead and the Steelers were facing a fourth down. You may have heard what happened next.
Six years later Stabler was on the other end of a legendary play. The San Diego Chargers were about to beat the Raiders for only the second time in something like a decade. They’d played horrible the entire game, but with a few seconds to go something happened. You may have heard about it.
Or this one.
Or maybe this one.
Making that kind of history was nothing new for Stabler. He did the same thing at the University of Alabama, leading the Crimson Tide to a 7-3 victory over Auburn in the Iron Bowl with the historic “Run in the Mud,” good for 53 yards.
Stabler was a winner and showed up big when it counted. He was 28-3-2 at Alabama and made the Raiders a perennial contender in the 1970s, helping some of his fellow players get into the Hall of Fame even though his invite got lost somewhere along the way.
“I’ve often said if I had one drive to win a game to this day, and I had a quarterback to pick, I would pick Kenny,” former Raiders coach John Madden said in a statement. “Snake was a lot cooler than I was. He was a perfect quarterback and a perfect Raider. When you think about the Raiders you think about Ken Stabler. Kenny loved life. It is a sad day for all Raiders.”
Stabler passed away Wednesday from complications with colon cancer at the age of 69. Though I was born in 1974, I don’t have any real memories of Stabler playing past these classic NFL Films, but he was a fixture in that regard. As I was growing up he was co-host of CNN’s Sunday NFL show and how I started each gameday morning.
I shared a press box with Stabler back in 2006 at a Tennessee – Alabama game, but only got to speak to him briefly during the pre-game. To me he was a fixture outside the game, a great part of its history and like Madden a person that was fun to watch talk about it.
Stabler’s reputation off the field preceded him and, as someone who was introduced to him as a white-haired wizard on an NFL pre-game show as a kid, it was strange to match the two ideas up. That is until you saw the films. Then you believed it.
There was just something about Alabama quarterbacks in those days.
Stabler was born in Alabama, he lived there and spent his later years working for the University, doing color on their radio broadcasts. His wild lifestyle, even slowed down by age, resulted in three divorces and three DUI arrests. His last divorce was from a former Miss Alabama, Rose Birch, because of course it was.
And, as is often the case for a man who lived as Stabler did, he had only daughters and is survived by all three, Kendra, Alexa and Marissa.
Stabler died Wednesday before hearing his name called for Hall of Fame induction, even with the incredible resume he brought to the table. My guess is that problem will be rectified, for his daughters at least, on next year’s Hall of Fame ballot.
