W7 Content: Raiders-Chiefs rivalry

When the Raiders and Chiefs take the field at Arrowhead Stadium Sunday, it will mark the 80th regular season meeting between the two teams. Add three post-season games to the series history and you have one of the most heated rivalries in the NFL.

The first matchup between the two franchises came in 1960, the AFL's inaugural season. At the time it was the Dallas Texans versus the Oakland Raiders. Following the '62 season, the Texans moved to Kansas City and were renamed the Chiefs. The Raiders played in Oakland through 1981 and then moved to Los Angeles for 13 seasons before relocating back to the Bay area in 1995.

The Raiders defense corrals the Chiefs' Barry Word in the final regular season game of 1991. The two teams battled again six days later in a playoff game. Kansas City won both games.

Regardless of location or win-loss records, the annual battles between these two storied franchises have always brought out the best in each team. The distaste for each other is engrained in players very early in their careers. 

"I remember when I was a rookie, the older guys would all talk about how special Raider week was," once commented Chiefs center Tim Grunhard. "They made a point to let us know about all the history that's gone on here, all the bad blood. It's a neat rivalry, it really is."

The regular season series is extremely close. The Chiefs have won 40 games while the Raiders have won 37 times. The teams tied on two occasions. In postseason the Chiefs hold a 2-1 edge.

Kansas City has dominated the series over the past decade. Their 17-3 mark versus the Raiders in the 1990s tied them for the NFL's best record against one club during that ten-year span. That is in stark contrast to the first thirty years of the rivalry. The teams split the 1960s, with each team winning 10 regular season games and one post-season game. In the 1970s, the Raiders claimed the series advantage with 12 wins compared to the Chiefs' six victories. The teams tied twice. In the 1980s, the Raiders earned the upper hand again with 12 wins to the Chiefs' seven wins. 

In 1968, the teams faced each other in a post-season contest for the first time. The Raiders came away with a 41-6 drubbing of the Chiefs in an AFL divisional playoff game to earn a berth in the AFL championship game. The following season, the Chiefs and Raiders again met in the playoffs - this time with the AFL title on the line. Kansas City sought and earned revenge with a 17-7 win that placed them in Super Bowl IV.

It was 22 years before the teams would meet again in the post-season. In 1991, the Raiders traveled to Kansas City to face off against the Chiefs in the first round of the AFC playoffs. Sixty minutes later, K.C. walked away with a narrow 10-6 victory in the first-ever playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium.