Raiders Legends: Salt & Pepper, Art Thoms and Otis Sistrunk

When rookie defensive ends Maxx Crosby and Clelin Ferrell hit it big for the Oakland Raiders in 2019, they brought back memories of two legends of the Silver and Black from the 1970s.

Following a game against the Los Angeles Chargers in which Crosby and Ferrell combined for 11 tackles and three of the five sacks against quarterback Philip Rivers, Ferrell chortled to a national television audience: “Salt and Pepper, baby!”

Raider Nation immediately lit up social media.

“They are calling each other ‘Salt and Pepper.’ Just like Art Thoms and Otis Sistrunk of yesteryear,” one Raiders fan wrote on Twitter.

Thoms and Sistrunk were defensive tackles who played side-by-side during the Raiders glory days of the 1970s, when they were an NFL powerhouse and routed the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI, 32-14, to cap the 1976 season.

They were two of the noted characters who played for the Raiders during that time, sometimes showing up for games in a limousine, Thoms with his shoulder-length hair and Sistrunk totally bald, both wearing boots, full-length leather jackets, bell-bottom jeans, and crazy hats.

“Art Thoms looked like a 6-foot-5 Amish pimp,” Steve Sabol of NFL Films said.

Actually, Thoms was a 6-5, 260-pound free spirit the Raiders selected in the first round (No. 22 overall) of the 1969 NFL Draft out of Syracuse, who fit right into the final years of the hippie era in the Bay Area.

The 6-4, 265-pound Sistrunk grew up in Columbus, Ga., and joined the Marines right out of high school, never attended college, played five years of semi-pro football before signing with the Los Angeles Rams, and joining their practice squad.

The Raiders spotted him during a joint workout with the Rams and brought him to Oakland.

“We’re totals opposites, Salt and Pepper,” Thoms said. “One black, one white; one with long hair and a full beard, the other totally bald; one from the North, one from the South. But we both played defensive tackle, were good friends, and hung out together, in addition to making public appearances with each other.

“When we played on Monday Night Football, Howard Cosell talked a lot about me and Alex Karras would play up ’Trunk.”

In fact, when the Raiders played a Monday Night Football game during the 1974 season, Karras looked at a camera shot of Sistrunk sitting on the bench with a cloud of steam rising from his bald head and said: “Otis Sistrunk went to the University of Mars.”

It stuck.

“When Alex said that, he put a tag on my back that has stayed with me ever since that game,” Sistrunk said. “It didn’t bother me. I told Alex I thought it was a joke. When they put a good tag on you, it just follows you.

“But it wasn’t a bad tag. It wasn’t a tag where I was caught doing cocaine or marijuana —because I don’t do drugs—or the tag of being a guy who spears quarterbacks. It was a good tag.”

Later, people simply called Sistrunk “The Man From Mars.”

Again, because sacks and tackles were not kept as official statistics by the NFL during the 1970s, we don’t know how many Sistrunk and Thoms amassed during their careers, but both had plenty.

What we do know is that Sistrunk recovered seven fumbles and intercepted three passes during his seven-year career and that Thoms made six fumble recoveries and two interceptions in his eight-year career.

Unfortunately for Thoms, he was injured along with defensive ends Tony Cline and Horace Jones early in the 1976 season and didn’t get to play in Super Bowl XI. The Raiders signed defensive end John Matuszak and nose tackle Dave Rowe, going to a 3-4 defense by adding linebacker Willie Hall, who made a number of big plays.

“We had to treat the Super Bowl like work,” said Sistrunk, who moved to defensive end and became the first player to play on a winning Super Bowl team without going to college. “Just another day on the job. Just go out do your work, win and go home.

“We did and we won. When I played with the Raiders, it was like being part of a family.

I loved every one of the guys from those teams.”

Thoms, who still lives near Oakland and runs several businesses, says Raiders fans still know who he is.

Even though he doesn’t exactly look or dress the same, he is remembered.

“I didn’t realize the impression we made on people while I was playing,” Thoms said. But years after I retired, people still remember.”

Raider Nation hopes the new “Salt and Pepper” can help the Silver and Black get back to the playoffs, for starters.

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