Kenny Stabler

Kenneth Michael Stabler, known as “Snake,” played quarterback in the NFL for 17 seasons, spending most of his career with the Oakland Raiders. Before turning pro, he starred at Alabama, where he earned first-team All-American honors in 1967. The Raiders picked him in the second round of the 1968 NFL/AFL draft.

Over his decade in Oakland, Stabler was the league’s MVP in 1974, the same year he led the NFL in passing yards. He made four Pro Bowls and was named first-team All-Pro once. Twice he led the league in both touchdown passes and completion percentage, and once in passer rating. His finest season came in 1976, when he guided the Raiders to their first Super Bowl victory in Super Bowl XI. After his death in 2015, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2016.

Growing up in Foley, Alabama, Stabler was a standout at Foley High School, where his football team went 29–1, losing only to Vigor High. He also averaged 29 points per game in basketball and was a left-handed pitcher good enough to draw minor-league offers from the Houston Astros and New York Yankees. His coach gave him the nickname “Snake” after a long, winding touchdown run.

In college, Bear Bryant recruited him to Alabama. Freshmen couldn’t play varsity then, so Stabler spent 1964 on the freshman team while the Crimson Tide won a national championship—though they lost the Orange Bowl to Texas. As a sophomore in 1965, he backed up Steve Sloan as Alabama won another national title, beating Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Taking over as starter in 1966, he led an undefeated 11–0 season that ended with a Sugar Bowl rout of Nebraska, but the team finished third in the polls behind Notre Dame and Michigan State. His senior year in 1967 was rocky: the offense struggled, the defense slipped, and Bryant briefly kicked him off the team for cutting class and partying. Still, Stabler delivered a legendary moment in the Iron Bowl, scrambling 47 yards through mud for a game-winning touchdown against Auburn, a play known as the “Run in the Mud.”

The Raiders drafted Stabler in the second round of the 1968 draft, the fifth quarterback taken. He also had baseball offers from the Yankees, Mets, and Astros. After signing a two-year deal in March 1968, he had knee surgery and spent the season on injured reserve, working with the taxi squad and playing two games for the Spokane Shockers of the Continental Football League. He briefly left the Raiders in July 1969, but returned for training camp in 1970.

His first regular-season action came that year. He gained notice in a 1972 playoff game against Pittsburgh, entering in relief of a sick Daryle Lamonica and scoring on a 30-yard scramble, though the Steelers won on the “Immaculate Reception.” After Lamonica failed to produce touchdowns in the first three games of 1973, Stabler became the starter, leading the Raiders to a 9–4–1 record and an AFC championship game appearance. In 1974, he signed a multi-year deal to join the Birmingham Americans of the World Football League in 1976, but the WFL folded in 1975, so he never played there.