5 things to forget about Raiders’ rap music video

Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series acquainting fans with the Raiders’ illustrious 60-year history as the team moves to Las Vegas for the 2020 season.

During the 1980s, music videos featuring NFL players rapping and rocking were as common as skinny neckties and Huey Lewis records. It seemed everybody had one.

The Chicago Bears started it all with the “Super Bowl Shuffle.” The Raiders’ contribution to the genre was called the “Silver and Black Attack.” It peaked at No. 97 in former Review-Journal sports writer Paul Gutierrez’s 2014 book called “100 Things Raiders Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.”

Here are five things to know — er, forget — about the “Silver and Black Attack.”

1. The video was made in the spring of 1986, and 25 players and coach Tom Flores were involved. Nine Raiders — Howie Long, Marcus Allen, Todd Christensen, Henry Lawrence, Matt Millen, Lester Hayes, Rod Martin, Mike Haynes and Curt Marsh, along with Flores — rapped/recited verse. The rest just sort of shuffled about on risers.

2. I think I saw Frank Hawkins, the Las Vegas native who starred at Western High School and UNR, twice in the video that has yet to be removed from YouTube for some reason. He is wearing No. 27 and dark sunglasses. Actor James Garner actually gets more camera time than Hawkins.

3. Of the two guys from Brigham Young featured in the video, I give the edge in rhythm to tight end Christensen over backup quarterback Marc Wilson. But it is almost too close to call.

4. Three things that date the video: One of the producers has a haircut almost identical to Ren McCormack’s, Kevin Bacon’s character in the movie “Footloose”; defensive tackle Bill Pickel is shown talking on a pay phone; and with the exception of Christensen’s mustache and a neatly trimmed beard or two, most of the Raiders are not sporting facial hair. They look like extras from an Andy Williams Christmas special.

5. The refrain goes as follows: “We wear the Silver, we wear the Black, don’t get in our way; We wear the Silver, we wear the Black, you better listen to what we say; We rock the stadium with all our might, this is what we do; We wear the Silver, we wear the Black, we’ll be coming after you.”

But Long gets the last word: “If anybody says anything (derogatory) about this after we leave this studio, I’m taking names and kicking (expletive).”

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.