Gutierrez: Why this Raiders-Giants meeting still captivates, records aside

Dec 26, 2025 at 11:14 AM

Paul Gutierrez

Raiders Columnist

It was called Repus Bowl I, the opposite of a Super Bowl, with super spelled backwards.

Obv.

It was a late-November matchup between a pair of 1-11 teams in the old Houston Oilers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1983, with the loser being the winner…by gaining the inside track in the race for the No. 1 overall draft pick.

It garnered macabre attention.

Yes, in November of 1983. Talk about Stranger Things, and living in the Upside Down…

Because the winner of that game - Tampa Bay - would actually finish with the No. 1 pick in the 1984 NFL Draft thanks to tie-breakers. Thing was, the Buccaneers had already traded away their first-round selection to Cincinnati the previous offseason for quarterback Jack Thompson.

The Bengals, now holding that top pick in the 1984 draft, turned around and flipped it to the Patriots, who used it on Nebraska receiver Irving Fryar.

A year later, while holding the 16th overall pick and having already drafted a wideout in Irving, the Patriots traded that selection to the 49ers.

The Niners used that No. 16 pick on…the GROAT. Jerry Rice. MVP of Super Bowl XXIII. Against…the Bengals.

It was called the Bush Bowl, the loser of the 2005 regular season finale between the 49ers and Texans winning the No. 1 pick and, for all intents and purposes, using it on explosive USC tailback Reggie Bush.

The 49ers won in overtime to improve to 4-12 but saw their draft pick drop to No. 6, where they took Maryland tight end Vernon Davis.

The Texans? They went against the grain by passing on Bush, who went second overall to New Orleans and won a Super Bowl with the Saints, and selecting North Carolina State edge rusher Mario Williams.

There's a fascination, more than a morbid curiosity, really, about Sunday's shindig between the Raiders and Giants at Allegiant Stadium. A game between the two lone 2-13 teams in the league with, as inferred above, far-reaching draft implications.

Those are the facts.

The feelings? Well, that's what makes these two squads - one from the biggest media market in the league and the other from the newest, glitziest market in the league - facing off so much fun.

There are names galore - from five-time Pro Bowl defensive end Maxx Crosby to first-team All-Pro tight end Brock Bowers (scratch that, he was placed on injured reserve Wednesday in what many saw as the ultimate "Repus" move) to blink-and-you-miss-him rookie running back Ashton Jeanty in Sin City; to a rookie quarterback with as much pizzazz as personality in Jaxson Dart to sack-happy edge rusher Brian Burns to sturdy linebacker Bobby Okereke in the Meadowlands.

Yes, there is a lot of relative star power, if not high Q-ratings, to digest while you wonder out loud - how are these two teams a combined 4-26?

And no doubt, the Silver and Black elephant in the room, which is also rocking a red, white and blue howdah, is the draft. Because, as history has shown, such games between such teams have such draft implications.

Not that the Raiders themselves care much about it.

"I don't give a [hoot] about the pick, to be honest," Crosby said at his locker earlier this week. "I don't play for that. That's not my job. My job is to be the best defensive end in the world. That's what I focus on every day. And being a great leader.

"That's their job - the front office, the coaches. They do that. That's got nothing to do with me."

Fair enough.

Which begs a more-than-fair question for first-year Raiders coach Pete Carroll - how do you block out the noise about the No. 1 pick being on the line against the Giants?

"I do it really well," said a stone-faced Carroll. "Yeah, I'm not really that concerned about any of that, and don't think you want me to be. We're going to go play, play the best we can play and see what happens."

Asked if he's talked with his players about that, Carroll was succinct.

"No," he said.

Indeed, it would appear as though the only "tank" the Raiders players and coaches would be agreeable talking about is former Raiders training camp body Tank Booker.

But even then…

Repus Bowl 2025 has every opportunity to be an entertaining affair, one with, again, far-reaching implications.

More facts? Lose out and the Raiders should get the No. 1 draft pick.

Win out against the Giants and the suddenly-depleted Chiefs, to end an 11-game losing streak against AFC rivals, and the Raiders' draft slot could potentially be as late as No. 7 overall.

So before you crash out, remember, players play, coaches coach and they do it all to the best of their ability on a specific day…as they are paid to do.

Plus, the draft is a crapshoot and you can still get the guy you want, er, need, later on, right?

Paging the likes of Marcus Allen, who dropped to 10th overall in 1982; Tim Brown, who went sixth in 1988; Charles Woodson, fourth in 1998; Bowers, 13th in 2024; and Jeanty, sixth last spring.

Stranger things, indeed.

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Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Alex Bachman (81) during practice at Intermountain Health Performance Center.