NAPA, Calif. -- It was the morning of some long-ago, forgotten, preseason road game in the late 1970s, and the Oakland Raiders were gathered for the pregame meal in a nameless hotel ballroom.
The monotony of camp was subsiding, and jobs could be on the line in that day’s exhibition, so yeah, there was tension at breakfast.
“Everybody’s looking around like, ‘Where’s Snake at? Where’s Snake?’” Rod Martin recalled this week. "Nobody knew where he was."
Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler was MIA, in a manner of speaking.
“Then all of a sudden, you see him come in with his shades on in the morning, bloodshot, been up all night long, and then he went out there and played a good game,” Martin said with a giggle that turned into a full-throated chortle.