What did Kenny “The Snake” Stabler look like at 38 years young? (2 Viewers)

[English]

I always send this to my football friends and ask them to guess Kenny's age. They are blown away when I say 37 lol

Geez . He looks like he just stumbled out of the bar , downed a triple hash brown scattered , smothered , covered and capped extra chili . Then crunched down three or four pain pills on the way to the stadium.
He mostly just looks tired.

 

[SAINT BIGAL]

His book is a pretty good read. He was definitely a party animal.

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

I was watching an old episode of Johnny Carson the other day from the late 1970s on one of those retro tv channels and whoever the female guest was said she’d recently met some Oakland Raiders and that she was flattered that Kenny Stabler had hit on her.. then Johnny said something to the effect of ‘Yes he does have a reputation for that’.. What a time to be alive .

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

His book is a pretty good read. He was definitely a party animal.

The only interaction i ever had with The Snake was in the mid 1990s when i was at the House of Blues in NOLA for their weekly Monday night SIN night - which i always thought was redundant- “Service Industry Night.. Night “ ?.. in any case, i was on the dance floor, plastered, and i look up to see Stabler leaning against one of the bannisters, drink in hand.. i was far more ‘overserved’ than he was, and of course , all i could think of to blurt out was ‘Holy s***, Kenny Stabler !’.. he would have been around 50 yrs old, maybe a little under 50- but seemed ancient .. i was early 20s, and i am guessing he experienced that reaction from people my age and older, somewhere in the vicinity of roughly 3 or 4 dozen times per day.. every day.. still it was a pretty neat moment that i am relaying here over a quarter-century later .

 

[HouseCall]

This is one of my favorite photos of the Snake. It really captures the frustration of being a Saint and Saints fan pre-Mora. It also shows the futility of Bum’s attempt to recapture the glory days of guys like Snake and Earl Campbell.

It’s also important to remember that in 1984, 38 looked a heck of a lot different overall than what we see out of people in their late 30s and 40s these days.

Look at this meme about the cast from Cheers on season 1.

 

[Saintman2884]

This is one of my favorite photos of the Snake. It really captures the frustration of being a Saint and Saints fan pre-Mora. It also shows the futility of Bum’s attempt to recapture the glory days of guys like Snake and Earl Campbell.

It’s also important to remember that in 1984, 38 looked a heck of a lot different overall than what we see out of people in their late 30s and 40s these days.

Look at this meme about the cast from Cheers on season 1.

I don't think it's a coincidence that more people these days, 40 years later, look more healthier, younger and less worn down by life then their parents or grandparents did due to the fact that 40-45 years, close to 1/3 of all Americans smoked or drank more then their children do now. In the 1970's and early 80's, close to maybe 35% of Americans smoked plus a majority of Americans, even in the early-to-mid 80's, worked blue-collar, industrialized factory jobs that didnt require college degrees but did tend to take a much harder toll on the human body, physically and psychologically then what affects most people in 2024.

We also need to keep in mind that Stabler's last years in Oakland werent very enjoyable and his position and future as starting QB became perilous after John Madden retired following the 1978 season, mostly due to burn out. For Stabler, his biggest defender/champion was gone and while he always got along with then-new Raiders HC Tom Flores, his once-sturdy relationship with Al Davis began souring around 1979. First off, Oakland tried trading Stabler to Chicago in the 1979 preseason, but Bears GM Jim Finks was lukewarm, as gifted and savvy of a talent evaluator, never was good at accepting he needed a decent QB for his teams, only offered Oakland maybe a third or fourth-round pick. He told Raiders "We're happy with who we have", an absurd remark because in 1979, Bears used 3 different guys at QB and until McMahon came along, never had at least a decent QB on their roster. This same Bears team and their GM also ignored pleas from their college scouts and didn't draft nearby Notre Dame All-American QB, Joe Montana.

So, Stabler was nearly shipped off to Chicago in the preseason and reportedly, the failed trade negotiations further soured Stabler/Davis relationship even further that both men barely even spoke to each other during that 1979 season until Davis called him a couple of months after the 1979 season to inform him if he wanted to be traded. Stabler named a couple of teams he'd prefer to be sent to, like Atlanta, Philadelphia, or Miami but also Stabler wanted out of Oakland because most of his friends (Villapiano, Banasak, Biletinikoff, and Sistrunk) had already been traded elsewhere or retired. He didnt find out he was being traded to Houston until a few days before it happened and while he liked Bum Phillips as a person, he wasnt thrilled with his 1950's Bear Bryant run-first heavy reliant offense and smothering defense game approach. Stabler came from a more aggressive, pass-first offensive philosophy and that was the complete antithesis of how Bum constructed and ran his offenses.

He also realized, like Archie eventually did, that in Bum's system, the QB was irrevalent, he dominates and wins games by using Abrams tanks for RB's and he'd done in Houston with Earl Campbell and mostly succeeded again here in New Orleans with George Rogers.

That look of despair and frustration on Snake's face in that photo is also probably emblematic of a veteran QB who knows this team he's on has the capability, roster and players to be a very good team but is held back and will only go so far because their HC is too stubborn and old-fashioned to know how to change (Bum wasnt stupid, he likely came to the realization his archaic form of football was outdated and didnt work anymore when he was still in Houston but he lacked the intelligence, know-how or the right system to change to, so he instead stayed with what worked before and hoped it might succeed again.

 

[sfidc3]

It could be a factor. But could be the life style back then too.

Yup.....also biological inheritance or hereditary (if your into the whole brevity thing) factors also are a factor IMO....

And regular exercise/workouts are much more common now with folks into their 50s, 60s and even 70's.....I think in very general terms folks are more active later in the life than in the past.....

 

[Broad St. Saint]

Jim Plunkett didnt seem to age prematurely when he arrived in Oakland as a backup in 1979 and then proceeded to win two SB's in his early 30's and lead the Raiders to several successful seasons in-between but then again, Plunkett was a choir boy compared to Looney tunes like John Mutusak, Lyle Alzado, Ted Hendricks, Lester Hayes, and Todd Christiansen (probably one of the smartest, most articulate NFL players ever).

Plunkett is Latino and has a natural tan complexion that would age better in the California sun. Also was the son of two blind parents which may have forced a level of maturity on him that might’ve made him choose a relative choir boy lifestyle on Al Davis’ 70s Raiders.