Lester Hayes

STICK 'EM--BUMP AND RUN, BABY

With #37 Lester Hayes

“You know, I was taught in the NFL from the 'Old School’ that you had to break your opponent's concentration, you had to bend a man’s confidence. The game plan and rule was that by the 4^th quarter, a man’s will to fight was to be drained. --Lester Hayes

“I Thank Al Davis for helping me out with this matter. Al Davis has been there for me....” --Lester Hayes

Lester’s Illness

Lester talked a little about his illness and also recalled his childhood back in 1963. When a new kid moved in the neighborhood with an illness, his friends would mock him every chance they could. “My friends and I would mock this poor kid, several of us tormented him, and I believe that God taught me for that. And now I can understand not to ridicule anyone anymore, because now I know how it is to be with a long-term illness,” said Lester Hayes.

Lester Hayes found out that his infirmity was due to being around cats for a prolonged period of time. Lester grew up with cats in his household and has had several reactions for the last two decades and his illness had gone unnoticed for some time. The disease affects his breathing passage and lungs, and for some time now, Lester has been treating the infection with over-the-counter allergy medications. “I Thank Mr. Al Davis for helping me out with this matter,” said Lester. "Al Davis has been there for me, and I am so very grateful to Mr. Davis. A few years ago when I took a trip to Virginia for speech therapy, they noticed my illness was also affecting my speech pattern. So, I came back on my own and tried to solve it with various doctors until Mr. Davis let me see their [Raiders] team physician. Again, thank you so much, Mr. Davis.” To this day, the former all-pro corner back has much improved with his verbal communication.

Lester Playing His Draft Cards Against the NFL

Did you know that when Lester Hayes was playing for Texas A&M, he was voted as the best at his position as the number one safety in the pre-draft poll? “When it came time for the draft, I didn’t want to get drafted by the Oakland Raiders, Patriots, or Seahawks,” said Lester. “When scouts would fly down from as far as 3,000 miles away to see me, I would stand them up for two to three hours and hope that they would leave and lose interest in me. I didn’t want to play for anyone but for Houston and/or the Dallas Cowboys back then. I had my mindset, and that was it. I figured if Tony Dorsett did it, then maybe I could, too! [Laughing]. Mr. Davis invited me to Oakland, but I stood him up, too, just like the Pats and Seahawks. And I paid for that. It turned out to be that I was drafted 1^st but 14^th overall for the safety position in the draft. Now I understand that you cannot stand up scouts or teams, and now I’m really thankful that I played for the Oakland Raiders and am a Hall of Fame finalist as a cornerback,” said Lester.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due


Hendricks "Mad Stork"	Matt Millen played with intensity.	Lyle Alzado "Fierce"

Lester gives tribute where credit is due without any selfishness or egoistical motives. Raiderdrive asked Lester the following: What about your bump and run style? “That’s the way the Raiders and Charlie Summers played you--you're out there, man-on-man, bump and run, and on your own. He’s your man, and a lot of those guys had speed then, too.” How did you cover a speedy receiver like a Charlie Joiner back then? Lester responded: “I could not have done it without great sack men that we had, and I would also like to thank Coach Brown, and my classroom practitioner, Chet Franklin. I think that in Super Bowl XV and XVIII, Charlie Summers should have been put in the defensive Hall of Fame. Our blitz package was the reason for us winning Super Bowl XV and XVIII. I also give credit to our great sack men that we had back then, like Ted Hendricks, Reggie Kenlaw, Rod Martin, Matt Millen, Mike Davis, Owens, Howie Long, Lyle Alzado, Bob Nelson…. That’s what makes a bump and run cornerback triumphant. No bump and run cornerback can play bump and run successfully with a consistent 4-man rush. No one can!”

Lester continued: “Remember this: A very, very important factor on the football battlefield is having 'no doubt.' I believe that if a cornerback consistently lines up six yards from the receiver, it puts a cornerback in a situation of depth trauma. By playing bump and run pass coverage you are depending on your sack men or blitz package. So, it’s not just a one-man show; it’s a team as a whole for others to help at various positions. Let’s look at Denver for 2000; Denver had two good cornerbacks that were B-corners. Their defensive coordinator, Glenn Robinson, had the system down to where it looked like he was playing with 14 men! He would blitz 7 and 9 men on 3^rd down. I had to actually go back, rewind, and see if he was playing that many! (Laughing.). He had good players like Buckley and Crockett, so if you have a successful blitz package, you make it as if you are playing with 14 men.”

The Best Tandem in the League, and I Had a Star Wars Dream.

“If you ask me who the best tandem in the National Football league was right now, I would have to say it was # 24 Charles Woodson and #21 Eric Allen. They were the best in the league. They could not be successful without a full blitz package that the Raiders had. The men up front make them who they were," said Lester.

Raiderdrive asked Lester about Super Bowl XVIII and his Star Wars dream of the Super Bowl the night before.

Lester responded: “I had a Star Wars dream before the Super Bowl. I got on the plane that was destined for Tampa Bay the first night. It is very vivid to this day. The dream had the final score of 42-10. I am telling the honest to God truth! I told the writers about my dream beforehand, and they all laughed at me as if I was crazy! And behold, the final score was 38-9! It [score] was very, very close as my dream indicated, and I knew beforehand based on our blitz package that there was no way that Joe Theisman and his Redskins' offensive game plan would be successful. I knew that our package would be too much for them, we surprised them. They had no idea we were that good; they only observed what they seen on game films.”

Being Physical My Way in the NFL

Lester Hayes: “You know, I was taught in the NFL from the 'Old School' that you had to break your opponent's concentration. You had to bend a man’s confidence. The game plan and rule was that by the 4^th quarter, a man’s will to fight was to be diminished. You consistently keep pounding a man and play him like in a combat zone on the football battlefield and show him no mercy until the clock reads zero, zero. I remember the 60, 000 plus fans that came out to Oakland, the cornerstone of Raider fans where the biorhythm sounded more like 120,000 fans screaming and yelling, and you could feel the intensity of the game with a roar! Man, those were the days; you could just feel the biorhythm roll! Like Michel Jordan calls the zone is when an athlete feels invisible, and that’s how we always felt. And with the 60,000 plus fans feeling like 120,000, it was something that you can’t explain, but to just feel it, the roar, a feeling like no other.”

My Unique Stance That No One Had

Lester: “This is some good stuff. Now you're getting me back to the good days, the 'Old School.' [Laughing.]. Back in 1974 at Texas A&M with my LB status, that was my stance until 1975, when I made a vicious change from a LB to safety. I was an All American safety in 1975 and ’76. At the time when the Raiders drafted me, I knew that the Raiders tried all safeties at corner. When I was drafted as a Raider, I just never changed my stance. In 1977, when I went to training camp for the Raiders; keep in mind that I never played corner, and when I did, I just kept my stance because I was so used to it. Now in that stance if you don’t have the quickness, the pre-eminence and the superiority that comes with it, there’s no way that you can get off that stance by making your turns and cuts with the quick side release of the grain in time, and I had it back then.”

With #37 Lester Hayes

Lester’s Illness

Lester Playing His Draft Cards Against the NFL

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

The Best Tandem in the League, and I Had a Star Wars Dream.

Being Physical My Way in the NFL

My Unique Stance That No One Had