Tag: Lester Hayes

Raiders well represented in Touchdown Wire’s list of best players by jersey number

Several Raiders greats made Touchdown Wire’s list of the NFL’s best ever by jersey number, but a staggering number did not.

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In the past, I have put together a list of the best Raiders ever to wear each jersey number. But that’s just comparing Raiders players. Would those players be the greatest to wear the number if compared to every other player in NFL history to wear that number?

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar went about finding that out.

His list includes a good number of Raiders players. Starting, of course, with No. 00 himself and working from there. Here are all the former Raiders who made the list:

00 — Jim Otto
26 — Rod Woodson
29 — Eric Dickerson
37 — Lester Hayes
42 — Ronnie Lott
46 — Todd Christensen
80 — Jerry Rice
83 — Ted Hendricks

Raiders greats who didn’t make the list (and who made it instead):

3 — Daryle Lamonica (Jim Thorpe)
8 — Ray Guy (Steve Young)
12 — Ken Stabler (Tom Brady)
16 — George Blanda, Jim Plunkett (Joe Montana)
17 — Davante Adams (Philip Rivers)
21 — Cliff Branch (LaDainian Tomlinson)
22 — Mike Haynes (Emmitt Smith)
24 — Willie Brown, Charles Woodson (Darrelle Revis)
25 — Fred Biletnikoff (Richard Sherman)
32 — Marcus Allen (Jim Brown)
41 — Phil Villapiano (Eugene Robinson)
48 — Lionel Washington (Stephen Davis)
50 — Dave Dalby (Mike Singletary)
52 — Khalil Mack (Ray Lewis)
63 — Gene Upshaw (Willie Lanier)
75 — Howie Long (Joe Greene)
76 — Steve Wisniewski (Orlando Pace)
78 — Art Shell (Bruce Smith)
81 — Tim Brown (Calvin Johnson)
87 — Dave Casper (Willie Davis)

As you can see, while eight Raiders greats is a decent number to make the list, there’s a staggering number of Raiders greats who did not.

I’m sure many you probably disagree with a few of the snubs here, and I do as well. The one that stands out to me is Darrelle Revis being named the best No. 24. I like Revis a lot, but no way would I have placed him above either Old Man Willie or CWood. As I see it, the title for best No. 24 should go through them.

Charles Woodson stumps for Lester Hayes as next deserving Raider to get into Hall of Fame

Lester Hayes is next Raiders great who should get the call to the Hall according to Charles Woodson

A few years ago, the list of deserving Raiders who had not gotten the call to the Hall was a long one. The Senior Committee has helped right many wrongs, most notably Ray Guy, Ken Stabler, Tom Flores, and as of today, Cliff Branch.

Those were some of the greats who one might call criminal for having been passed up for so long.

Now with Cliff Branch finally getting in after 32 years of eligibility, who’s next? Charles Woodson knows who he would pick — Lester Hayes.

He’s not wrong. Hayes would get my vote as the next most deserving Raider if I had a vote.

Unfortunately, those who DO have votes on such things have turned a blind eye to what Hayes accomplished over his career as a lockdown cornerback for the Raiders.

Hayes spent his entire 10-year NFL career with the Raiders. In that time, he won two Lombard trophies, went to five Pro Bowls, and in 1980, set an NFL modern-era record with 13 interceptions which had him named. first team All Pro.

He was half of the feared Hayes/Haynes duo that helped the Raiders win their third Super Bowl. Haynes has long since been in the Hall of Fame. While Hayes still waits.

Why he waits? One can theorize, but none of the reasons would be legitimate.

Some point to his generous use of Stick-em — a substance that was legal in the years he used it — but if you look at some other players who used it during that time who are in the Hall of Fame — including one Fred Biletnikoff — that argument seems to fall apart.

Some point simply to the fact that he was part of those “dirty” Raiders defenses, particularly the secondary. Or perhaps, just because he was with the Raiders during a time which the NFL wasn’t too keen on Al Davis and his insistence on doing things his way.

That last one actually seems the most plausible, especially in light of all the other Raiders greats who waited so long to get the call.

Charles Woodson was a first-ballot inductee. And he would like to see Lester Hayes’s wait end after 32 years. We’ll see if the Senior Committee is listening.

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