Fortuitous coincidence alert: the New Yorker's books blog, The Book Bench, posted an interview last week with Peter Richmond, the author of Badasses: The Legend of Snake, Foo, Dr. Death and John Madden's Oakland Raiders. The book is Richmond's take on "the last great football team that played the sport for love and camaraderie, not money or fame."

The Raiders of the 1970s (they won the Super Bowl XI, in 1976) gained a reputation for their ferocious, hard-hitting intensity on the field, and their shaggy-haired, hard-partying habits off it. The team's veterans, Richmond notes, would actually show up for training camp early, to spend time socializing with each other, something that is inconceivable today.

When asked to explain how this rebelliousness and strength of character was able to arise (and has since died out), Richmond points to the administration of owner Al Davis and head coach John Madden, who both believed in a light disciplinary hand - so long as the players gave their all for the team on the weekend, they were free to do as they pleased during the week. But Richmond also points to the 1970s as being a particularly rebellious era in all of sports: