The good ol' days.
Lately it seems like that is all Oakland Raiders fans have to hang their hats on.
Raider Nation has witnessed 12 consecutive non-winning seasons, including four or fewer wins the past three seasons.
During their heyday the inverse was true. Beginning with the 1970 NFL merger, the Raiders enjoyed 11 straight seasons without a losing record and won two Super Bowls.
The physically dominating Raiders led to such mystique that it compelled Steve Sabol to pen the famous Autumn Winds poem.
New coach Jack Del Rio would like to bring back that bully mentality.
"I was asked the other day about the Raiders mystique," Del Rio said Wednesday in an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio, via CSN California. "Let me tell you what the mystique was. It was people knowing they were going to get pounded when they played the Raiders. There was fear developed through physical play of this football team. We want to bring that physicality back."
That physical play must be within the rules, not undisciplined and haphazard.
"We want to bring swagger back, but it has to be controlled, calculated and fundamentally sound," Del Rio said. "It has to lead to winning football. It's not the kind where you're drawing penalties and playing sloppy and undisciplined.
"One thing I've learned in talking to Raiders greats is that too much is made of the side show and not enough about the hard work and the toughness that was a part of this team."
Mystique is built by winning. The Raiders haven't won in a long time, which is why the autumn wind has receded.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast welcomes Lindsay Rhodes to discuss the Patriots' response in the "Deflategate" saga and the latest names revealed on the "The Top 100 Players of 2015" countdown. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.
