Raiders Are Living in Fat City Again

OAKLAND —  It started before it started.

Frank Middleton of the Oakland Raiders stomped to midfield just before kickoff Sunday, yanked off his helmet, and glared at the New York Jets.

“One of their guys had been asking for me all week, so I let him know I was here,” Middleton said. “The black guy. The fat guy. Number 73. Right here. Somebody want me? Come get me.”

Matt Turk, the Jet punter, asked Middleton to chill.

Middleton got hotter.

“Those guys had been talking all week, I wasn’t going nowhere,” he said.

Damien Robinson, a Jet safety, asked Middleton to back off.

Middleton didn’t move.

“If you call me out, if you call the Raiders out, you better show up to face us,” he said.

The Jets finally, meekly, approached their agitator.

There was pushing, shoving, coaches screaming, referees scrambling.

The black shirts danced to their sideline. The white shirts trudged to theirs. And that was that. The Jets were done. This AFC semifinal game was over.

Even if nobody knew it but the Raiders, whose 30-10 victory at Network Associates Coliseum served as a testament and a warning.

To insult them is to summon their swaggering, taunting, championship past.

Now that the nastiness is back, is there anything in the next two weeks that can make it disappear?

“Coach told us to come out today and unleash the beast,” Middleton said.

So they did, setting that nearly extinct animal free to hammer Chad Pennington, clothesline Wayne Chrebet and pound Jet defenders into green runways.

They forced three fumbles, picked off two passes, gained 399 total yards, and danced around the New Yorkers with the sneer of Central Park bullies.

Said Middleton: “The Jets cowarded out.”

Countered Jet safety Sam Garnes: “They fired us up, too. But they just did a better job of handling the situation.”

Um, yes, especially in the previous week when, fueled by all the hottest-team-in-football talk, the Jets openly gave the Raiders no respect.

Josh Evans, Jet defensive tackle, told reporters that he thought Middleton was a lousy player who was forced to hold because he wasn’t good enough to block normally.

Mistake.

“No sacks, no sacks,” Middleton said. “If I’m so fat and unathletic, I guess that means that Evans needs to get out of the league.”

Dave Szott, the Jet guard, was quoted as saying that the only reason the Jets lost to the Raiders in the regular season was because the Jets ran out of time.

“Are they crazy or what?” Raider safety Terrance Shaw said. “They made it personal, and you don’t make it personal. Not with this team.”

Others in the Jet locker room and around the league -- including this red-faced columnist -- talked about how Pennington was going to be the next Joe Montana while ignoring league MVP Rich Gannon.

“I just hope Joe Montana never had a game like that,” Middleton said.

Then, upon entering the field before the pregame incident, the Jets skipped and waved and flapped banners in front of a jeering crowd that grew angrier and louder by the minute.

“I just don’t get it,” Raider safety Rod Woodson said. “Nobody respects this football team. Everywhere you looked, we were the team that had the best chance to get upset. Are you kidding me?”

Some of their postgame yapping may sound funny, but this was no joke.

The nation tuned to a modern, refined playoff game Sunday, and the 1970s broke out.

The stadium became a mosh pit, the Raiders bumping and diving and laughing, the Jets standing stunned to the side.

Bill Romanowski recovered a fumble, stood up, ran 50 yards in the opposite direction, and dropped the ball into the Black Hole end-zone stands.

Eric Barton intercepted a pass, stepped out of bounds, then ran 40 yards the other way, where he dropped to the ground and spun the ball on the field like he was throwing dice.

Then there was Travian Smith, who ran on to the field dancing in rhythm to the rap music blaring from the speakers.

On kickoffs.

The Raiders didn’t just talk the talk, they walked over the Jets with crushing hits of Pennington after the ball had been thrown, illegal but unnoticed grabs of Jet receivers, and the sort of intimidation that surely brought back pleasant memories for Al Davis. He appropriately showed up in a black silk sweatsuit, and walked through the locker room afterward with his fist pumping and adjectives flying.

“I never want to end up as bulletin board material,” said Szott, who said his quote was dug up from several weeks ago. “That’s why I stayed away from you guys this week. Evil press, evil press.”

The only time the Raiders showed any restraint was at the end of the game, when Middleton tried to run back on the field for his team’s final kneel-down. But his coaches stopped him.

“I wanted to tell Josh Evans that he got a free ticket back to a New York, a free ticket to watch me play next week,” Middleton said.

That would be here in the AFC championship game against the Tennessee Titans, who unfortunately have a quarterback so bruised he rarely practices, and a running back who just suffered a concussion.

This should be rich.

“Today shows that these Raiders have a lot of confidence,” said Jack Tatum, aging but still strong enough to swagger through the press box on this throwback Sunday. “It’s good to see.”

Tatum smiled. It has been two decades since he made a tackle, but the Tennessee Titans should worry about that smile.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.