Sad News: “RIP”: Tom Brady’s Raiders Join NFL Community to Mourn Loss of Super Bowl Champ Who Passed Away at 74…see more

The old school Raiders fans will fondly recall the 1976 AFC Championship game.

That day, the famed Steel Curtain defense of Pittsburgh was pierced time and again as the two-time defending Super Bowl champions were humbled at the Oakland Coliseum.

The Raiders, beaten by the Steelers in the previous two conference championship games, knew they were heading in for a fight, and they were more than up for it.

No one embodied that warrior spirit more than John Vella, the Raiders’ rugged second-round pick out of USC, who got into a confrontation with the Steelers linebacker Jack Lambert, also known as ‘Mad Man Jack.’ Lambert was going after Raiders running back Clarence Davis in the end zone after he scored a touchdown.

However, Vella was not having it and jumped into action. “Lambert was kind of roughing up Clarence, so I grabbed him and threw him off. It might have been unusual to get into it with Lambert, but we were a team that wouldn’t back down from anyone,” Vella said in 2001.

This fighting spirit is how many Raiders fans will remember Vella, after the news of his passing was announced on Wednesday.