Add The California Post on Google The Raiders can change cities. They can change stadiums. They can put hundreds of miles between themselves and Los Angeles.
The Raiders are as much a part of Los Angeles as palm trees and street tacos.
Every year, the Raiders’ trip to SoFi Stadium proves the point. The schedule calls it a road game. The sea of silver and black tells a different story.
“To have the fans there, supporting us, it’s fantastic,” said veteran left tackle Kolton Miller.
Which makes their recurring inability to reward that loyalty at SoFi Stadium all the more maddening.
Since the stadium opened in 2020, the Raiders are 1-7 there, including seven straight losses. Their only win came during the pandemic, when fans weren’t allowed inside. In other words, the faithful have packed the place every chance they’ve gotten.
But have yet to walk out celebrating a regular-season victory.
The Raiders return Sunday to face the Chargers in a building that, once again, should feature a sizable contingent of fans wearing silver and black. For some, it will be a short drive to see the team they never stopped calling their own. Others will travel from Las Vegas and beyond, turning another road game into something that sounds and feels much more welcoming.
“We know the fans over there in L.A. are heavy, for sure,” said Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby. “We appreciate all the love and support.”
The familiar question is whether the Raiders will finally give them a reason to celebrate afterward.
Coming off a convincing season-opening win over the Dolphins, the Raiders can leave Los Angeles at 2-0 while burying a division rival in an 0-2 hole after the Chargers’ opening loss to the Cardinals.
And reward a Southern California fan base that has never stopped showing up for them.
Their fans have held up their end for decades. Sunday is a chance for the Raiders to hold up theirs.
“It’s a division game. It is SoFi, it is L.A. I know how our fans travel,” said Miller. “But above all, it is a division game.”
Their Southern California following has never needed much explaining. The Raiders called Los Angeles home from 1982 through 1994, playing at the Coliseum and winning a Super Bowl along the way. Thirteen seasons were enough to establish a bond that survived their return to Oakland and, eventually, their move to Las Vegas.
Parents passed it to their children. Neighborhoods kept it alive. The uniforms remained part of the city’s sports identity long after the franchise packed its moving trucks.
The Raiders left town. Plenty of their fans stayed right where they were.
And a decade ago, there was a real possibility the team would come back.
Throughout 2015, the Raiders and Chargers pursued a shared stadium project in Carson, competing with Rams owner Stan Kroenke’s vision for Inglewood. For the Raiders and their Southern California following, a reunion was within reach.
In January 2016, owners approved the Rams’ return and the Inglewood project that became SoFi Stadium. The Chargers received the first option to join them, leaving the Raiders behind their division rival in the Los Angeles pecking order.
Los Angeles got two teams. The Raiders got another city.
But allegiances were never going to rearrange themselves as neatly as the league’s relocation plans.
The Chargers ultimately took that opportunity. The Raiders eventually found their path to a new stadium in Las Vegas.
That is the history the Raiders bring with them every time they walk into SoFi. They are visitors in a market they once called home, playing inside the stadium that emerged from a relocation fight they lost, against a division rival that secured the opening they wanted.
And waiting for them are fans who never needed an owners’ vote to decide where their loyalty belonged.
There is also an opportunity the Raiders have squandered far too often.
Winning the crowd has been considerably easier than winning the game.
The noise, the jerseys and the familiar chants can make for an impressive scene. They cannot protect a quarterback, establish a running game or get a defense off the field on third down.
Sunday offers the latest chance, and an early test of whether the progress the Raiders showed in their season-opening victory over the Dolphins can travel.
Under new coach Klint Kubiak, they gave themselves something to build on. There was a productive running game, a defense that generated pressure and a sense of players working toward the same purpose.
Now comes the harder part: doing it again, against a division opponent with its own reasons to respond after an opening loss.
The Raiders need to give their fans something more substantial than another promising week.
That means creating enough room for Ashton Jeanty to keep the offense moving. It means giving Kirk Cousins the protection and opportunities to sustain drives. It means carrying the defensive urgency from the opener into a game against Justin Herbert, whose ability to punish mistakes can quickly quiet even the loudest visiting crowd.
It also means handling the moments that separate an encouraging performance from a victory. A third-down stop. A red-zone possession. A fourth-quarter drive when everyone in the stadium knows what is at stake.
Those are the moments that can turn all that support into an actual advantage.
No one should confuse a September game with a referendum on Kubiak’s tenure. The Raiders are still building, and one result will not determine where this goes.
But these are opportunities a developing team has to learn to seize.
A division game. A chance to stack victories. A road environment softened by thousands of people who desperately want to believe the Raiders are finally moving in the right direction.
Their Southern California fans have spent years showing that distance does not diminish devotion.
They have followed the franchise through departures, failed reunions and too many disappointing returns. They will show up again Sunday, bringing the same loyalty the Raiders have been able to count on for decades.
The Raiders never got the Los Angeles homecoming they pursued.
