Raider Royalty: Linebacking Great Phil Villapiano

When discussing the lineage of Oakland, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas Raiders royalty, linebacking great Phil Villapiana quickly rises to the top.

Linebacker Phil Villapiano was such a diehard Oakland Raider that when Managing General Partner Al Davis called him into his office in 1980 to tell him the Silver and Black had traded for wide receiver Bob Chandler of the Buffalo Bills, he knew it was a great move for the Silver and Black.

Villapiano was excited.

“I love Bobby Chandler, he’s great,” Villapiano said. “Who did we trade for him?”

Said Davis: “You, Phil. We traded you.”

Thus ended Villapiano’s brilliant nine-year career with the Raiders, although he remains one of the most popular players in team history among longtime members of Raider Nation.

Villapiano was a virtually unheralded defensive end out of Bowling Green when he played in the 1971 Senior Bowl, but he performed so well that he was voted into the Senior Bowl’s Hall of Fame.

“I got invited to come to Mobile, Alabama,” Villapiano recalled. “I didn’t even know where Mobile, Alabama, was. I went down there and tackled everybody. I didn’t care if you were a guy in the street, I tackled you.”

Afterward, Davis walked past him in the locker room and said: “Nice game.”

Villapiano had to ask who Davis was, but he found out a few months later that he made enough of an impression when the Raiders selected him in the second round (No. 45 overall) of the 1971 NFL Draft and moved him to linebacker.

“After (the Senior Bowl), I sensed I could make it in the NFL,” Villapiano said. “All the top prospects were there and I was making more tackles than any of them. And the draft was like two weeks later.

“I got 13 years in the NFL, and if I don’t come to the Senior Bowl, I wouldn’t have had any of them.”

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Villapiano fit right in with the mavericks on the Raiders and was a vicious tackler, in addition to being one of the best coverage linebackers in the NFL because of his speed, and he played from sideline-to-sideline.

Statistics for individual tackles were not compiled by the NFL back then, but it the hade been Villapiano certainly would have been among the league leaders virtually every year.

Villapiano also made 11 interceptions and returned them for 160 yards, including an 82-yard touchdown in 1972, in addition to recovering 17 fumbles. He was the 1971 AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year and played in the Pro Bowl six times.

In the famous “Sea of Hands” playoff game against the Miami Dolphins in 1974, after the Raiders went ahead on Kenny Stabler’s miracle touchdown pass to Clarence Davis, Villapiano clinched the victory by intercepting a pass by Bob Griese.

“When you play for the Raiders, you play to win and you play tough,” Villapiano said during an induction speech at the National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame. “It’s not something the coaches teach or talk about. It’s just there, like in the air. It’s an attitude — you are going to hit people and smash them if you are a Raider.

“We abused teams that didn’t come to play. If they didn’t prepare for us, we had no respect for them. That reputation also helped us when we weren’t up for a particular game.”

The biggest moment of Villapiano’s career probably was the most underrated play in Super Bowl XI, when the Raiders defeated the Minnesota Vikings, 32-14.

Early in the game, linebacker Fred McNeill of the Vikings became the first NFL player to block a punt by Raiders legend Ray Guy and Minnesota took over on the Raiders three-yard-line.

Two plays later, Villapiano hit running back Brent McClanahan and forced a fumble that fellow linebacker Willie Hall recovered.

The Raiders dominated from then on.

“We had them right where we wanted them,” Villapiano said afterward, and nobody understood. “ … They got rid of their receivers and brought in four tackles. Well, we knew there were only two plays they ran out of this set. As we watched the new players come in, I was saying ‘We got ’em where we want 'em!’

“Ron Yary, who’s normally a tackle, lined up across from me as a tight end. The instant the ball was snapped I was by him and into the backfield. As they handed the ball off, I stuck my face right in there and knocked the ball out of Brent McClanahan’s arms and we recovered.”

Villapiano also was involved in one of the most controversial plays in Raiders history, as he was assigned to cover Franco Harris on the play in 1972 that is known as “The Immaculate Reception.”

When Harris caught Terry Bradshaw’s pass that was deflected upfield after safety Jack Tatum dealt a powerful hit to Frenchy Fuqua, Villapiano had Harris in his sights but claims he was clipped by tight end John McMackin and offers the game film as proof.

“I have a really good angle, no big deal, I can make this play,” Villapiano recalled. “(But) McMakin! That guy dives at the back of my legs. Doesn’t get me down, but I stumble. ... I think I could have made (the tackle) in the middle of the field.

“It was a clip!”

Harris calls Villapiano every year on Dec. 23, the anniversary of the play, and the two have become close friends.

Of course, Harris helped the Steelers win four Super Bowls, played in nine Pro Bowls, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990.

Villapiano is one of several Raiders on the list of players who members of Raider Nation believe should in the Hall of Fame, and he has been on the shortlist a few times without getting the call. It certainly doesn’t help that tackles were not an official statistic in those days.

And had he been able to tackle Harris, who knows …?

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