Before the Raiders became one of the most recognizable franchises in football, before the championships, the legendary personalities and the silver and black mystique, Jim Otto was already there.
In fact, for the first 15 seasons of Raiders football, there was only one starting center.
Jim Otto.
Wearing his famous 00, Otto became the anchor in the middle of Oakland’s offensive line and eventually earned a nickname that tells you almost everything you need to know about what he meant to the organization:
Mr. Raider.
Otto wasn’t the biggest offensive lineman ever. He wasn’t playing in an era where offensive linemen received enormous contracts or became household names.
He simply lined up every week, controlled the middle of the offensive line and refused to leave the field.
For 15 years.
That combination of dominance, durability and toughness puts Jim Otto at #4 on the Ethical Sports Takes list of the greatest offensive linemen in NFL history.
The Original Raider
Otto joined Oakland for the franchise’s inaugural season in 1960.
The Raiders were brand new. The American Football League was brand new. Nobody knew what Oakland Raiders football would eventually become.
Otto helped define it.
He started at center from the beginning and remained there through the 1974 season. During the entire 10-year existence of the AFL, Otto played in every single one of Oakland’s 140 regular-season games.
More impressively, he was selected as an All-League center throughout the AFL’s entire existence.
Think about that.
An entire professional football league came and went, and Jim Otto was its defining center from beginning to end.
As Oakland developed from a struggling expansion franchise into one of professional football’s powers, Otto remained planted in the middle of the offensive line.
The Raiders won the 1967 AFL Championship and reached Super Bowl II. From 1967 through Otto’s final season in 1974, Oakland won seven division championships in eight years.
Players changed. Coaches changed. The league itself changed when the AFL and NFL merged.
The man snapping the football didn’t.
210 Straight Starts
Offensive line might be the most physically punishing position in football.
Every snap begins with another enormous human being trying to move you out of the way. Knees get twisted. Ankles get rolled. Hands get crushed. Helmets collide.
Otto’s response was apparently to just keep playing.
210 regular-season games.
210 starts.
Zero games missed.
From his first professional season in 1960 through his last in 1974, Otto never missed a regular-season game.
When preseason, postseason and All-Star appearances are included, Otto played 308 games as a Raider.
That kind of durability would be impressive at any position.
At center, it’s almost ridiculous.
Otto wasn’t avoiding contact to preserve himself either. He played football with the physicality that would eventually become synonymous with the Raiders.
Every Sunday meant another battle in the trenches.
And every Sunday, 00 was in the middle of it.
The Best Center of His Era
Durability alone doesn’t put someone fourth on an all-time list.
Otto wasn’t merely available.
He was dominant.
Throughout the AFL’s existence, Otto consistently earned All-League recognition. After the merger, he continued receiving major honors in the NFL.
His combination of strength, intelligence, leverage and toughness made him the centerpiece of Oakland’s offensive front.
The center has responsibilities that go far beyond simply snapping the football. He has to recognize defensive fronts, communicate assignments and immediately deal with enormous interior defenders trying to collapse the pocket.
Otto mastered the position.
Oakland eventually surrounded him with other legendary offensive linemen, including Gene Upshaw and Art Shell, creating one of football’s great offensive-line traditions.
But Otto was there first.
He wasn’t just another member of those Raiders lines.
He was the foundation they were built around.
The Résumé
Jim Otto’s résumé looks like something created for an all-time great.
Pro Football Hall of Fame — Class of 1980
10× First-Team All-League / All-Pro selection
12 straight All-League selections
12× AFL All-Star / Pro Bowl selection
AFL All-Time Team
NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team
1967 AFL Champion
210 consecutive regular-season starts
308 total games as a Raider
Otto was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.
Decades later, when the NFL celebrated its 100th anniversary and assembled an All-Time Team spanning the entire history of professional football, Otto was selected as one of only four centers.
That is staying power.
Generations of centers came after him, the position evolved dramatically and the athletes became bigger and faster.
Otto’s name remained among the standard-bearers.
The Price of Never Missing a Game
But those 210 consecutive starts came with a price.
A massive one.
Otto played through an extraordinary collection of injuries during his career. His knees were repeatedly damaged. His face was injured. He suffered concussions. He once described playing despite a detached retina and temporarily losing vision in his left eye.
Yet he kept lining up.
The damage followed him long after his final snap.
Otto underwent dozens upon dozens of surgeries throughout his life. Multiple knee replacements and serious infections followed. Eventually, in 2007, his right leg had to be amputated above the knee.
Football had given Otto glory.
It had also taken an enormous toll on his body.
His autobiography couldn’t have been given a more appropriate title:
The Pain of Glory.
Looking back at Otto’s career today also gives us a different perspective on football than people had during his era. Playing through catastrophic injuries isn’t something that should automatically be celebrated or expected from modern athletes.
But when evaluating Otto historically, you cannot separate his greatness from the extraordinary physical punishment he endured.
His body repeatedly told him to stop.
Jim Otto kept playing.
Mr. Raider
There couldn’t have been a more appropriate nickname.
Jim Otto joined the Raiders before there was really a Raiders legacy to inherit.
He helped create it.
The toughness, intimidation, loyalty and refusal to back down that eventually became associated with the silver and black were qualities Otto represented every time he stepped onto the field.
He watched Oakland go from a new AFL franchise to a league champion and perennial contender while serving as the constant presence in the middle of its offensive line.
Fifteen seasons.
210 consecutive starts.
An entire AFL career without another center taking his place.
A first-ballot Hall of Fame induction.
And eventually recognition as one of the greatest centers from the NFL’s first 100 years.
At #4 on the Ethical Sports Takes list of the greatest offensive linemen in NFL history, Jim Otto’s place isn’t built on one great season or one dominant stretch.
It’s built on 15 years of excellence, sacrifice and an almost unbelievable refusal to stay off the football field.
Before the Raiders had decades of history, they had 00 standing in the middle of the offensive line.
That’s why Jim Otto wasn’t simply a Raider.
He was Mr. Raider.
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