Parking lot shootings, bathroom beatings; A history of violence between 49ers and Raiders fans

The rivalry between the 49ers and Raiders, and in particular among the fans, goes back a long time.

Following the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, two teams across the bay from each other finally met on the football field. The Niners were in need of a victory to reach the postseason, and hammered the Raiders 38-7 on Dec. 20, 1970.

Both teams would go on to lose their respective conference championships. But the rivalry was born.

Flash forward 56 years.

San Fran defensive end Keion White had a pretty good excuse for missing whatever was going on in the stands at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday. The 49ers defensive lineman had the Raiders to deal with, and somebody on the other side of the line of scrimmage had been assigned to make his afternoon difficult.

Turns out, the guy playing in the game caught some of the action in the seats anyway.

“Man, I think we seen somebody fight in the stands,” White told reporters. “Yeah, so we saw people fighting in the stands.”

You wonder how many people who grew up on the Battle of the Bay heard White say that and immediately had a question for him.

Which fight?

What year?

That’s the unfortunate history the Raiders and 49ers carried into Sunday, the Raiders’ first regular-season game in the Bay Area since they left Oakland for Las Vegas after the 2019 season. Often times there is just as much action in the stands and parking lot of there is on the field.

Part of the history, anyway.

For much of Sunday afternoon, you could see why so many fans missed having these two teams in the same neighborhood. Take a look at the videos from the tailgates. There’s live music. People in Raiders gear are dancing alongside people in 49ers gear.

Cars rolled into the parking lot with fans of both teams inside. Brothers and sisters, cousins, lifelong friends. Hell, husbands and wives. The Raiders and 49ers could go years between games. Some of their fans had to figure out whose flag went on the car.

Then there’s the video that turns your stomach. Two people are down on the pavement outside Levi’s. The punches and kicks keep coming. Some bystanders step in to help. Others keep their phones trained on the beating.

Imagine walking up on that with your kid’s hand in yours and the car keys in your other hand.

Sadly, it was hardly an isolated incident.

Santa Clara police reported 11 arrests and 45 ejections. Several fights remain under investigation.

If the particulars sound familiar, there’s a reason. The fighting and violence among these two fanbases got so out of hand over the years that the two teams eventually stopped playing their annual game among each other.

On Aug. 20, 2011, the 49ers beat the Raiders 17-3 at Candlestick Park. An exhibition game, for crying out loud. The following morning, coaches had film to review and decisions to make about who might be able to cover a punt. Three families had considerably more urgent business.

A 26-year-old man had been beaten unconscious in an upper-level restroom. Two men had been shot in the parking lot in separate incidents. The yearly preseason series came off the schedule as a result.

By the time the teams played another exhibition in 2021, the Raiders lived in Nevada and Candlestick was gone.

In between came a Thursday night in November 2018 at Levi’s. Remember Nick Mullens? A third-string quarterback got his first NFL start and beat the Raiders 34-3. A kid plays a game he can tell his grandkids about, and the next morning there’s video of people throwing haymakers in the seats. Police made 32 arrests that night, three for assault and most for public intoxication.

Anybody who thinks fans fighting is exclusive to the Bay Area ought to spend five minutes watching videos from ballparks, arenas and stadiums across the country. Plenty of cities have seen two fans in opposing jerseys take a swing at each other. 

The reality of that is ugly enough. And it can never be condoned.

What made Sunday’s incidents so brutal was how the punches and kicks kept coming long after the man on the ground could do anything to defend himself, lying there seemingly unconscious.

Watch that part again. 

A man is lying on the pavement. He can’t defend himself. Somebody standing over him can see that as clearly as you can and still decides to kick him.

It was sickening.

That deserves the strongest condemnation from the owners of both teams and the NFL commissioner. We ought to be able to do better than this. A parent who took a kid to a football game shouldn’t spend the drive home trying to explain why grown men kept kicking somebody who couldn’t get up. Good luck explaining the people who cheered.

Sunday should have belonged to the Bay Area parent who could finally take a kid to a Raiders game again without booking a flight. And to the 49ers fan who’d waited eight years for the privilege of calling an old friend across the Bay after the game and asking, real innocently, if he happened to catch the score.

Those are the people who kept this rivalry going long after the moving trucks pulled out of Oakland. They came to Levi’s together. The least anybody owed them was a clear path back to the car.