Raiders All-Time Top Five: Safeties
1. Charles Woodson, 1998-2005, 2013-2015
Charles Woodson was an All-Pro cornerback and safety for the Raiders and the Green Bay Packers who will become the latest player who wore Silver and Black to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August. The 6-1, 210-pound Woodson was selected by the Raiders with the fourth pick of the 1998 NFL Draft out of Michigan, where he led the Wolverines to a share of the National Championship, was selected All-Big Ten Conference three times an All-American twice. In addition, as a junior, he won the Jim Thorpe Award, the Bronko Nagurski Award, the Walter Camp Award, the Chuck Bednarik Award, and the Heisman Trophy, in addition, be being named Big Ten Player of the Year, Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Sporting News Player of the Year. He also was named to the Mount Rushmore of Michigan Football along with Tom Harmon, Desmond Howard, and Anthony Carter. Woodson made himself available for the NFL Draft after his junior year and was an instant starter, not to mention a sensation for the Raiders. As a rookie, he made 64 tackles, intercepted five passes, and returned them for 118 yards and a 46-yard touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals, and also forced two fumbles. Woodson was selected to the Pro Bowl and was named NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. That was only the beginning. Even though quarterbacks began avoiding him, Woodson collected 61 tackles including three for losses, one interception that he returned 15 yards for a touchdown, a fumble recovery that he ran back 24 yards and he was named All-Pro for the first time while making the Pro Bowl again in his second season. Woodson only got better by the year, finishing his eight seasons for the Raiders with 469 total tackles including 15 for losses, 17 interceptions for 220 yards and two touchdowns, 14 fumbles, and four recoveries, plus 5½ sacks while being selected All-Pro three times and playing in three Pro Bowls. In Super Bowl XXXVII, Woodson made eight tackles and intercepted a pass in a 48-21 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After sustaining a broken leg in the sixth week of the 2005 season, Woodson was lost for the year, and the next season he signed a seven-year, $52.7-million free-agent contract with the Packers. He played the next seven seasons with the Pack, being selected All-Pro four more times, playing in four Pro Bowls, being named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2009, and becoming a world champion when Green Bay beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 25-17, in Super Bowl XLV, even though he watched from the sidelines after sustaining a broken collarbone in the second quarter. Woodson returned to the Raiders for his last three seasons in 2013, adding 284 tackles, 10 tackles for losses, three sacks, nine interceptions for 70 yards in returns, four forced fumbles, seven fumble recoveries for 61 yards, and a touchdown. He was selected to the All-Pro team for the eighth time and played in his ninth Pro Bowl in his final season, 2017, when Woodson also won the Art Rooney Award. Later, he was selected to the NFL All-Decade Team for the 2000s. “I ended up where I should have been and I’m really happy about that,” Woodson said of returning to the Raiders. “Those three seasons really closed out my career the right way. If I didn’t go back, I think there would be a love-hate relationship for the fans. But it was the right decision and I’ll always be part of the Raider Nation.” Woodson finished his career in the top five in NFL history with 65 interceptions and 11 pick-sixes. He also is the Raiders franchise career leader with 18 forced fumbles and 84 passes defended.
2. Jack Tatum, 1971-1979
Tatum was one of the best safeties and most understood players in NFL history. It all stems from a play during a 1978 preseason game at the Oakland Coliseum on which Tatum hit Darryl Stingley of the New England Patriots on a pass over the middle. It probably wasn’t even in the top 100 of Tatum’s career hit parade and nobody realized it was serious until Stingley didn’t get up and had to be carried off the field on a stretcher because he was permanently paralyzed. Tatum went to the hospital in nearby Castro Valley that night to express his sympathy, but was turned away by the Stingley family and became a villain because of the incident, even though he was simply doing his job. Stingley, who passed away in 2007 at the age of 55, claimed incorrectly in his autobiography “Happy to Be Alive,” that Tatum never made any effort to apologize or to see him after the incident. Said Coach John Madden of the Raiders, who did meet with the Stingley family that night: “It was something that ate on (Tatum) for his whole life.” The Raiders of the 1970s had an aggressive defense and some players pushed the envelope, but Tatum wasn’t one of them. He simply hit harder than possibly any player in NFL history. Said Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott of the San Francisco 49ers, who played the last two seasons of his career with the Raiders: “I patterned my game after Jack Tatum’s. If I couldn’t have played like Tatum, I couldn’t have played in the NFL.” The 5-10, 210-pound Tatum was selected by the Raiders with the 19th pick of the first round in the 1971 NFL Draft out of Ohio State, where he was an All-Big 10 Conference selection in his last three seasons and an All-American in 1969 and 1970 as the Buckeyes won National Championships when he was a sophomore and a senior. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and became a key part of the Raiders’ famed Soul Patrol defensive backfield. We don’t know how many tackles Tatum made in his career because that was not an official NFL statistics at the time, but the players on the other side of them remember because he always hit hard. He also made 37 interceptions in his nine-year career with the Raiders and returned them for 636 yards, including a 66-yarder, and recovered four fumbles, including one that he ran back for an NFL record 104-yard touchdown against the Green Bay Packers in 1972. In 1966, he had six picks for 146 yards. Tatum was selected to the All-Pro team in 1974 and 1977, in addition to playing in the Pro Bowl three times. When the Raiders beat the Minnesota Vikings, 32-14, in Super Bowl XI, Tatum was in on four tackles and made a vicious hit that knocked the helmet off wide receiver Sammy White. “That was my job,” Tatum said of his ferocious hits. “When receivers came across the middle, I wanted them to know I was there so that they maybe would be looking for me instead of the ball when they came in there again.” The Raiders traded Tatum to the Houston Oilers for running back Kenny King and two draft choices in 1971, when he made a career-high seven interceptions and returned them for 100 yards, and had two fumble recoveries his final NFL season. He worked for the Raiders organization after his retirement but had physical issues. Tatum had all five toes on his left foot amputated in 2003 due to a staph infection caused by diabetes, and eventually lost his left leg below the knee because of the illness. He also suffered from an arterial blockage that cost him his right leg and he used a prosthetic limb until he passed away from a heart attack in 2010 at the age of 61. Tatum deserves the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but because of the Stingley play, he probably will never get there.
3. Dave Grayson, 1965-1970
The 5-10, 187-pound Grayson was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Oregon by the Dallas Cowboys in 1961, but legendary Coach Tom Landry reportedly believe he was too small to play in the National Football League, and he was released. Grayson signed with the Dallas Texans, who became the Kansas City Chiefs and went on to be a star in the fledgling American Football League. By the time he came to the Raiders in 1965 in a trade for cornerback Fred Williamson, Grayson already was a three-time AFL All-Star, having intercepted 19 passes for 309 yards, including an AFL record 99-yard touchdown return as a rookie against the New York Titans. He also returned 84 kickoffs for 2,231 yards, a 26.6-yard average, and another 99-yard TD against the Denver Broncos in 1963. In the 1962 AFL Championship Game, Grayson intercepted a pass by quarterback George Blanda to set up a touchdown and then blocked a field goal attempt by Blanda in the final seconds to preserve the Texans’ 20-17 victory. When he got to the Raiders, Grayson didn’t let up, and even though he intercepted only three passes in his first year in Oakland in 1965, their final season at Frank Youell Field, he returned them for 149 yards and two touchdowns, including a 79-yarder off Joe Namath in a 24-24 tie with the New York Jets. Grayson was a member of the famed Eleven Angry Men of Defense in 1967, when the Raiders went 13-1 during the regular season and routed the Oilers, 40-7, after Grayson got them started with a 47-yard return on the opening kickoff of the AFC Championship Game. However, the Raiders lost to the Green Bay Packers, 33-14, in Super Bowl II. In 1968, Grayson made a career-high 10 interceptions for 195 yards in returns and a 25-yard touchdown against Pete Beathard of the Oilers and followed that the next season with eight more picks for 132 yard in runbacks, including a 76-yard score against Bob Griese in a 20-17 victory over the Miami Dolphins. Grayson retired after the 1970 season as a six-time AFL All-Star, was selected to the Associated Press All-Pro team four times and later was selected to the All-Time AFL Team after being the league’s all-time leader in interceptions with 48 for 933 yards and five touchdowns. A native of San Diego, he is a member of the San Diego Breitbard Hall of Fame and the Oregon Hall of Fame, but like several other long-forgotten AFL stars, he will never get the call to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, even though Tom Landry was wrong about him. “Grayson was simply a victim of the AFL bias that ran so rampantly through the Hall of Fame voting process in the years after his career,” Clark Judge of Fan Nation Wrote in 2020. “How They Play” selected Grayson as the ninth-best player not in the Hall of Fame earlier this year. After retiring from the NFL, Grayson opened different businesses, which included one of the biggest nightclubs in Southeast San Diego during the 1970s. He also was involved with organizations such as the Boys Club, the YMCA, and the Committee for Community Involvement of Black Athletes. Grayson died in San Diego at the age of 78 in 2017.
4. George Atkinson, 1968-1977
Atkinson was listed at 6 feet and 180 pounds, but that was a stretch, yet he was one of the most intimidating defenders in the National Football League during the 1970s. That’s because as a strong safety he had to cover tight ends such as 6-2, 230-pound John Mackey of the Baltimore Colts; 6-6, 245-pound Russ Francis of the New England Patriots; 6-4, 235-pound Charlie Sanders of the Detroit Lions; 6-4, 240-pound Riley Odoms of the Denver Broncos, and 6-2, 235-pound Ozzie Newsome of the Cleveland Browns. Atkinson was considered a dirty player by many, but because of the size he gave away on every play, he had to get his job done by whatever means necessary. He was a member of the Raiders’ famed Soul Patrol, playing safety alongside the hardest hitter in football, Jack Tatum, while future Hall of Famer Willie Brown and Skip Thomas held things down on the corners. “There was nothing like them,” said Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton, who knows first-hand because the Raiders dominated his Minnesota Vikings, 32-14, in Super Bowl XI at the end of the 1976 season. “In 1979, the NFL created the five-yard chuck rule because of Atkinson, Tatum, Brown, Thomas, and the Raiders. Wide Receivers could not get off the line of scrimmage against them. Atkinson and Tatum and the rest of the gang were so physical and strong that I’d have to wait and hope my guys could get open before I got killed.” The Raiders selected Atkinson in the seventh round (No. 190 overall) of the 1968 NFL-AFL Draft out of Morris Brown College and he primarily as a kick returner as a rookie, setting the Raiders’ record of 205 yards, including an 86-yard touchdown, in a 48-6 victory over the Buffalo Bills in the season opener. Atkinson played cornerback early in his career in Oakland, becoming a starter in his second year, but found his home at safety and made himself a reputation. “Atkinson was an intimidator who roamed the field like a lion ready to pounce,” reads a story on JimJax Media. “He was the trash talker of the group often seen taunting and intimidated players who were much bigger than he was. He broke Russ Francis’ nose with a vicious forearm hit, and his hits against Lynn Swann of the Steelers are a part of NFL history. All-time great Paul Warfield once said: “When you went over the middle against Oakland and didn’t account for Tatum and Atkinson, you would not be in the game long without being carried off the field.” Atkinson is remembered for two big hits on Swann, who was not the intended receiver on either play, but sustained concussions on both. Coach Chuck Noll of the Steelers was quoted as saying Atkinson was part of pro football’s “criminal element,” so Atkinson filed a $2- million defamation lawsuit against Noll and the Steelers. Even though Atkinson didn’t win, Noll admitted under oath that some of his own defenders played virtually the same way Atkinson did. We don’t know how many tackles Atkinson had because they were not an official statistics, but in his 10-year career with the Raiders, he had 30 interceptions for 448 return yards, while recovering 13 fumbles and returning two for scores. He also returned 148 punts for 1,247 yards and three more touchdowns. Atkinson, who made the All-AFL team in 1969 and was a two-time AFL All-Star, worked on Raiders radio during pre-and post-game shows and hosted the television show Behind the Shield in the team’s final seasons in Oakland.
5. Vann McElroy, 1982-1990
The 6-2, 195-pound McElroy was a two-time All-American safety at Baylor before the Los Angeles Raiders selected him in the third-round (No. 64 overall) of the 1982 National Football League Draft, and he didn’t disappoint once he joined the Silver and Black. He had one interception while playing a backup role as a rookie, but stepped into the starting lineup at free safety the following season and made a career-high eight interceptions that he returned for 68 yards, and added three fumble recoveries to earn All-Pro honors. McElroy played the game in the same way hard-hitting Raiders safeties Jack Tatum did in the 1970s, hitting as hard as he could with little concern even for his own body. “Vann was nasty,” former Raiders teammate Marcus Allen said. “He brought everything he had on each and every play.” Again, we don’t how many tackles McElroy made during his career because they were not an official NFL statistic at the time, but there were many and the players on the other end of his hits generally remembered them for a while. McElroy was a key member of the Raiders team that routed the Washington Redskins, 38-9, in Super Bowl XVIII and made several big hits in the game, including one against wide receiver Art Monk, who was running a slant pattern. Monk’s helmet hit McIlroy on the chin and he felt sparks in his mouth. The blow left McElroy with a smoky taste and smell, and then he realized he had a mouthful of chipped teeth in his mouth. He spit them out and kept on playing. “All you’re concerned about is being able to go out on the football field and play the game,” McElroy said. “I’m not trying to come off as some hero. … That’s the way I thought football ought to be played.” After making 16 interceptions in his career at Baylor, McElroy made 31 more with the Raiders and returned them for 296 yards, including a 35-yard return for a touchdown off quarterback Randy Wright of the Green Bay Packers in a 20-0 victory for the Silver and Black in the opening game of the 1987 season at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. He also nine fumble recoveries and according to one source forced 13 fumbles, but that’s another stat that is incomplete because it wasn’t kept officially. McElroy was named to the All-Pro team six times in his nine seasons with the Raiders before being traded to the Seattle Seahawks before the 1990 season. However, he played only 10 games in three years with the Seahawks because of injuries and missed 54 games in his career because he was hurt. McIlroy announced his retirement before the 1993 season because of a decaying bone in his right ankle stemming from an injury in 1991 when he caught his foot in the artificial turf while covering a kickoff and blew out his ankle. He underwent surgery to repair ligaments and remove eight bone spurs from the ankle, but still tried to play the next two seasons. But that’s only the beginning. There were 45 stitches in his chin from a variety of hits, a number of broken or chipped eight teeth, cracked ribs, four pinched nerves in his neck, four broken fingers, and his right thumb is permanently out of its socket. McElroy has suffered a cracked larynx, sliced eyelid, a broken nose, two pulled groin muscles, and two pulled hamstrings, has a calcium deposit on his left shoulder and a screw in his right shoulder. And then there were the concussions, “At least five,” said McElroy, who sounded a bit like Raiders legend Jim Otto when he added, “It was my choice to play.”
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