History of the Los Angeles Raiders
The professional American football team now known as the Las Vegas Raiders played in Los Angeles as the Los Angeles Raiders from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season. The team's first home game in Los Angeles was at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum against the San Diego Chargers on November 22, 1982 after a 57-day player strike. They played their last game as a Los Angeles-based club on December 24, 1994 at the Coliseum against the Kansas City Chiefs, a game which they lost 19–9 to eliminate them from playoff contention.
Prior to the 1980 season, Raiders owner Al Davis attempted unsuccessfully to have improvements made to the Oakland Coliseum, specifically the addition of luxury boxes. On March 1, 1980, he signed a memorandum of agreement to move the Raiders from Oakland to Los Angeles. The move, which required three-fourths approval by league owners, was defeated 22–0 (with five owners abstaining). When Davis tried to move the team anyway, he was blocked by an injunction. In response, the Raiders not only became an active partner in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (who had recently lost the Los Angeles Rams to Anaheim), but filed an antitrust lawsuit of their own.[1] After the first case was declared a mistrial, in May 1982 a second jury ruled in favor of Davis and the Los Angeles Coliseum, clearing the way for the move.[2][3][4] The Raiders finally relocated to Los Angeles for the 1982 season, playing their home games at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
In the strike-shortened 1982 season, the team finished first in the AFC with an 8–1 record. They defeated the Cleveland Browns in the first round of the playoffs before losing to the New York Jets in the second round. The following season, the team compiled a 12–4 record and a first-place finish in the AFC West. in the playoffs, they convincingly defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Divisional Playoffs and Seattle Seahawks in the AFC Championship Game to advance to Super Bowl XVIII against the Washington Redskins. The Raiders built a 21–3 halftime lead over Washington en route to a 38–9 victory and their third NFL championship. The Raiders had another successful regular season in 1984, finishing 11–5, but a three-game losing streak in late October and early November forced them to enter the playoffs as the second wild card team. They were defeated by the Seahawks in the Wild Card Playoffs, 13–7. The 1985 campaign saw 12 wins and another division title, but the first-seeded Raiders suffered a humiliating 27–20 defeat at the hands of the New England Patriots in the Divisional Playoffs.
