WR Wells Started With the Lions, Became a Great Raider

The Las Vegas Raiders play the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football, and looking back, several players played in Motown and wore the Silver and Black.

Included are two current Raiders, running back Ameer Abdullah and linebacker Curtis Bolton. At the same time, in the past, there were fullback Marv Hubbard, wide receiver Desmond Howard, kicker Errol Mann, tackle (and later Raiders assistant coach) Ollie Spencer, quarterback Rusty Hilger, linebacker Pat Swilling, quarterback Rodney Peete, defensive tackle Mike McCoy, defensive back Phillip Buchanon and defensive tackle Jerry Ball.

However, the very best was wide receiver Warren Wells, who could have been one of the all-time greats had he stayed out of his way.

The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Wells was drafted in the 12th round (No. 160 overall) by the Lions in 1964 but made only two receptions for 21 yards as a rookie and was released by Detroit after the United States Army also drafted him.

After two years in the Army, Wells was signed as a free agent by the Kansas City Chiefs in 1967, and one day, Managing General Partner Al Davis of the Raiders was watching Chiefs’ preseason game films when he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“It looks like (the great wide receiver) Otis Taylor is on both sides of the field,” said Davis, who found out that it was Wells on the other side, and when the Chiefs tried to sneak him through waivers and sign him to the practice squad, the Raiders snatched him.

Wells caught two passes from backup quarterback George Blanda for 96 yards and a 50-yard touchdown plus a 46-yarder in the second week of the 1967 season but played a backup role and caught only 13 passes for 302 yards, a 23.23 average and scored six touchdowns that year.

The Raiders were beaten by the Green Bay Packers, 33-14, in Super Bowl II, when Wells caught one pass for 17 yards before really taking off the next season.

Wells caught 53 passes for 1,137 yards, a 21.45-yard average, and a league-leading 11 touchdowns—including a 94-yarder—in 1968 and was selected to the American Football League All-Star Team.

In the AFL Championship Game against quarterback Joe Namath and the New York Jets, Wells caught three passes for 83 yards, but the Raiders lost, 27–23, at Shea Stadium in New York.

“I sure would like to have that guy Wells on my team,” Namath said afterward.

Wells followed that season with 47 receptions for a league-leading 1,260 yards, a whopping 26.8-yard average, and a league-leading 14 touchdowns in 1969, and one year later, he added 43 catches for 935 yards and 11 touchdowns when he was selected to the 1970 Pro Bowl following completion of the AFL-NFL merger.

In the 1970 AFC Championship Game, Wells caught five passes for 108 yards, including a 37-yard touchdown pass from Blanda in the fourth quarter, but the Raiders lost to the Baltimore Colts, 27-17, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

Sadly, that was the last game Wells would ever play.

“He was probably the best receiver I’ve seen,” Raiders Hall of Fame wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff said. “ … I believe that he was that talented. To this day, there are not too many people who are so impressive, even these players nowadays.

“I always go back to Warren, think about him playing and seeing how he moved out on the field and around the field. He could run, he could stop, he could run everything. He was just an amazing player.”

In addition, Hall of Fame cornerback Emmitt Thomas of the Kansas City Chiefs called Wells “My worst nightmare.”

Unfortunately, Wells had problems off the field with drugs and alcohol.

Following the Pro Bowl game at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Jan. 24, 1971, Wells was met by police in the locker room and arrested on a warrant for a probation violation originating from his conviction in 1969 for aggravated assault against a woman.

Wells had pleaded guilty after being accused of attempting to rape the woman, and in 1970 he violated his parole by drinking in a bar, where he was involved in a fight during which another woman stabbed him in the chest.

Shortly after that, Wells was sentenced to one year and released after 10 months.

As part of his sentence, Wells was ordered to spend the next six months at a drug rehabilitation center known as Synanon.

When he returned to the Raiders, he was nothing like the athlete he had been.

“He seemed to be emotionally void,” the great Raiders tight end Raymond Chester said.

Added Coach John Madden: “He came back and was never the same.”

Wells was released by the Raiders before the 1971 season and returned to his childhood home of Beaumont, Texas, where he was arrested for robbery in 1976 while panhandling. However, later in life, he kicked alcoholism.

Wells returned to Oakland in 2017, when he attended the 50th reunion of the Raiders’ 1967 AFL Championship team and was honored with his teammates in a ceremony on the field.

In 2015, Wells lit the Al Davis Memorial Torch at the Oakland Coliseum before a game against the Green Bay Packers.

However, Wells suffered from dementia and died of a heart attack in 2018 in Beaumont at the age of 76.

The Silver and Black will stay on the road to take on the Detroit Lions on Monday night, Oct. 30, at 8:15 p.m. EDT/5:15 p.m. PDT.

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