Heroes and Icons with Greg Randolph and special guest Phil Villapiano; Oakland Raiders legendary linebacker

Welcome, and thank you for joining us today on the Heroes and Icons podcast. I'm your host, Greg Randolph. Please find me on my new website, Heroes and Icons podcast with Greg Randolph and on X/Twitter @heroesiconspod to get updates for great shows like this and others. You can also find me on Houston City Beat; Heroes and Icons with Greg Randolph (houstoncitybeat.com) If you're enjoying the show, please share it with a friend or two, and I thank you very much in advance for doing so.



We have a very special guest today. If you are a football fan, especially of the NFL and the Oakland Raiders, this gentleman needs no introduction. He was drafted by the Raiders in 1971 out of Bowling Green State after a sterling performance in the Senior Bowl and was the 1971 AFC Defensive Rookie of the Year. He was involved in one of the most famous plays in sports and NFL history, the Immaculate Reception play against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1972 AFC Playoffs. He was also in the nostalgic Sea of Hands game against the Miami Dolphins in the 1974 AFC Playoffs. He was a Super Bowl winner in Super Bowl XI, in which he made a momentum-changing goal -line tackle that forced a Minnesota Vikings fumble recovered by the Raiders, who handily defeated the Vikings 32-14. One of the fastest linebackers of his era, known for his big playmaking ability and coverage skills, he made 5 Pro Bowls over his 13 NFL seasons with Oakland from 1971 to 1979 and then Buffalo from 1980 to 1983. After his football playing days were done he has enjoyed a very successful career in the logistics business. In 2018, he was inducted into the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame. In 2019 he was a Senior Class candidate for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

GR: And you were in, you know, back to you guys hating the Steelers, you were in the epic Immaculate Reception game with your friend, the late great Franco Harris, and you were also in the Dolphins Sea of Hands game. I'll get to that one in just a second, but let me start with the Immaculate Reception game. Can you tell me what happened on that play and where you were. I know you were clipped on that play. 

PV: Yeah, that was nuts, Greg. I remember being in the huddle. And so it's my second year. Franco is a rookie. And, we got the game, I mean, Kenny (Stabler) comes in, Kenny bootlegs, goes around what, 25 yards or something for touchdown. We got them in fourth down and 22, fourth and 22. And I'm in the huddle and we got this, we got this thing we put in for situations like that, where they took out the middle linebacker, Dan Connors. Gerald Irons, and I stayed in and we're guarding. I got Franco, he's got Fuqua, so, and then the other guys are going to make like a little dome, so we're going to have a zone deep and man to man up, up tight, up close.

PV: So I said, no penalties guys, no penalties. We're out of here. One play. We're going on in the playoffs. So, you know, Bradshaw takes a snap. I don't know how many holding penalties they could have called on the lineman. Our guys were being tackled. They weren't going to get in no matter what. But somehow I think it was Horace Jones that actually got in and spooked him out. He got running over there and I swear he just threw the ball down the field. And here we got that deep, that deep zone. And Tatum comes up and nails, no. Well, let me back up a sec. I go on Franco.

PV: I grab him and then I took my hands off him real quick because, you know, in Pittsburgh, you could have got a flag for doing anything. So I took my hands down and he's kind of going over here very slowly. And Franco starts sprinting down the field and I'm running right on his inside, but I see Tatum coming up on Fuqua. I mean, I'm looking right at it. I'm going over there just in case I have to help. And then Tatum hits Frenchy (Fuqua) and the ball goes off his shoulder right directly over my head. And I turned, I turned back over here and here's Franco catching it. Well, he had maybe caught it, maybe it hit the ground. We don't know. There was no good film of if he caught it or not. 

GR: Right! 

PV: Bottom line. He was out of there like a dart. I make a move on of the guy; their tight end (John) McMakin dives in the back of my legs. I don't fall. If I fell, maybe we get a clipping call? I should have, I should have fallen, but I thought I could make the play. Franco Harris is a lot faster than you think when he wants to run; that guy was out of there and he was going down the field and so the play is over and John Madden is going wacky. And I'm like, what's he going wacky about? He's out on the field and I think you've probably seen clips, and he's on the field yelling and screaming. 

PV: I didn't even know the rule; if it goes from offensive guy to an offensive guy, the play's dead. You can't do that. You could do it now, but you can't do it then. So anyway, Madden is saying that I don't even think the referees knew. You got to remember it was 1972, these referees taught school during the day. I mean, they flew in.

I mean, come on, they were not professional referees like they are now. Holy mackerel. So I said to myself, coach don't usually act like this unless he knows something. So, I had no idea. I'm just over there. I'm pissed. Franco was my guy. He scores the touchdown. All I was trying to do was do what I usually do, trying to make a tackle. They got lucky, you know, I'm thinking, you know, we lost. So now it goes on and on and on. 

PV: And there's no decision until they called New York and all that stuff. And then the referee comes out of the dugout. He goes touchdown. Holy mackerel. Madden went nuts again. The field was swarmed. I can't believe. I mean, the police had lost control and we finally got in the locker room and John told us, and I'm like, holy mackerel. He says, guys, you won that game. They took that from us. Al Davis comes in, you won that game. I'm like, holy mackerel, I can't believe this; this was my second year in the league.

PV: And I'm going to tell you one thing, Greg. I was exhausted. I'm beat up. You know, it's so hard to be a pro football player. It's amazingly hard on your body. You get so beat up. And I was sitting there like exhausted and thinking maybe we have to go to Miami. I didn't even know if I wanted to go. 

PV: The Immaculate Reception was nuts. And you know, the Raiders, we got, we got into a lot of those games. I don't know how we got in so many of those crazy games, but we did. And that was just one that went the other way, 

About Greg Randolph:

Hello there. I am your host, Greg Randolph.  I'm originally from the Houston, TX area where I've spent the majority of my life as a sports fan but I've evolved into other things. Here on the Heroes and Icons podcast I will be discussing life lessons and historic moments from classic sports, entertainment, personal development and other topics. Thank you for listening to the Heroes and Icons podcast! Please find me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/heroesandiconspodcast. Thank you again for listening and enjoy the show!