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OAKLAND — Sad. Mad. Cheated.
Veronica Jackson, aka Mz Feisty Raider, summarized what many fans near and far felt Sunday as the sun finally set on the NFL at the Oakland Coliseum.
Fittingly, the Raiders came to a crashing halt in their farewell game in Oakland — much to the bitter disappointment of the Black Hole denizens.
That’s the place Jackson had invested 14 years of her life.
Hundreds of face-painted, costume-wearing fans crammed into one of the most notorious and colorful seating sections in American sports for a gathering that was part family reunion, part wake.
Mostly it was a teary-eyed, beer-soaked going-away party for this small segment of the 52,788 fans in attendance Sunday.
As they’ve done so many times before, the Raiders left fans reeling in a second-half collapse that led to a 20-16 defeat. Soon they depart for Las Vegas and a modern, glitzy $1.9 billion stadium expected to open next summer.
Jackson, 43 from Salinas, stood on a seat, reacting with outstretched middle fingers as the Jacksonville Jaguars scored with 31 seconds left to somehow overcome a 16-3 deficit in a matter of 15 minutes.
She did not get the moniker Mz Feisty for nothing.
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But Jackson mostly remained stoic while Black Hole mates nearby screamed obscenities in a section where “F-bombs” are as commonplace as hellos.
The south end zone section of the Coliseum became home to a community of devotees like Jackson who turned Sundays into a semi-weekly Halloween festival. It began organically when the team returned from Los Angeles to Oakland in 1995.
Cleveland has its “Dog Pound” and Green Bay its Cheese Heads. But those fans cannot match the passion and grittiness of the Black Hole where the participants share the duality of love and hate, sometimes in the same breath.
Jackson has been coming for the love of it since 2005, as she developed lasting friendships through fanbase charity golf tournaments and other events. If misery loves company, then Jackson came to the right place.
No one in the raucous section could find a Silver-and-Black-lining on this day even as thousands of fans lingered in the place they had felt so at home in for 25 years. The fraying threads of the Coliseum appealed to deep-rooted fans who took pride in an underdog mentality as Oakland lived in the shadow of glittery San Francisco.
“It’s nice to have a new stadium, but I love our little craphole here,” Jackson said. “I love our broken seats, broken cup holders. We don’t need fancy.”
While many said they would make the trek to Las Vegas when possible, the afternoon felt like the end of a piece of the NFL’s past. None of the Oakland contingent thinks Las Vegas fans can re-create the aura they had cultivated and nourished. Firstly, the Las Vegas parking is not conducive to the Coliseum’s massive tailgate parties.
“It’s like getting the Grateful Dead together without Jerry Garcia,” said Black Hole fan Albert Diaz of San Diego. “It won’t be the same.”
Jackson, a mother of two adult children, knew something precious had come to an end Sunday as much as she kept denying it. She has never been the Black Hole’s most flamboyant character. But Jackson was part of the fabric that challenged the conventions of fandom.
“The feeling once you go in there is so just alive and so vibrant,” she said. “Other sections are so boring. It’s so somber. They’re just sitting down.”
Throughout the dismal second half, Jackson either stood quietly, screamed encouragement, or, as she had promised in the morning, sent a torrent of salty language toward those on the field.
She contributed to the deafening din, screaming every time the defense needed a stop in the woeful fourth quarter.
Jackson also was not exactly surprised by the crushing outcome after witnessing only one winning season — in 2016 — since first going to a game in 2005. Jackson recalled meeting star receiver Jerry Rice in Las Vegas one time during an autograph promotion.
“You’re a Raiders fan, huh?” Rice asked.
“Through the good and the bad and the bad and the bad,” Jackson said she told him.
The bad did not discourage her from continuing to return to the Coliseum. She was not about to miss Sunday’s finale.
Jackson got a room by the Oakland International Airport so she could hang with friends on the eve of the game. They congregated Saturday night at the 991 Club in San Leandro. Jackson said she returned to her room at 4 a.m.
Yet gameday preparations started just after 7 o’clock. Jackson chugged Dr. Pepper — her coffee — while applying makeup. Jackson is known for wearing a fedora hat over her long, chocolate brown hair and costume contact lens.
She was dressed Sunday head to toe in Raider gear, including an Oakland shield chain necklace and dangling team-style earrings.
Jackson became a Raiders fan while watching football with her grandfather, Arthur Jackson. Her grandfather loved the 49ers. But she loved the Raiders and their pirate image. Jackson said he looked as if he could have been former Raiders owner Al Davis’ brother.
“He hated that,” she added.
Although Jackson wanted to watch parades and cartoons on television, she also wanted to spend time with her grandfather. She was a bona fide fan by the time Jackson entered middle school.
But she never imagined it would come to this.
After triple checking that her makeup was in place, Jackson put a box of tissues into her purse. “I’ll be using these all day,” she said.
Jackson then brought her luggage to her blue Lincoln with the license plate: FYZTR8R for Feisty Raider.
Once inside the parking lot, Jackson was in her element. She bounced about thousands of other black-clad fans stopping at her friends’ tailgate tents as if on a pub crawl. “Tell Me When to Go” by Bay Area rapper E-40 blared across the parking lot.
Jackson was stopped by an Oakland police officer who gave her a hug. “Come down and see me later,” he told her.
Later, she bumped into former Los Angeles Raiders linebacker Jerry Robinson. More hugs and selfies for posterity.
Jackson kept making the rounds. She dropped off a tequila bottle she had decorated in Raiders motif at the Darth Raider tent for an auction.
A little later, Jackson, a personal assistant and creative artist, encountered Raiders fan Hector Marquez of Seattle. After they hugged, Marquez asked, “See you in Vegas?”
“Yeah,” Jackson said.
A more accurate reply, she admits, would’ve been “Maybe.”
“I’ll have to see how I feel,” she said later. “I’ll always follow the Raiders.”
Standing by her car hours later in the December twilight, Jackson kept repeating that she thinks the Raiders will play a few games in Oakland next year because the Las Vegas Stadium will not be ready for the 2020 season.
Then she stopped herself.
“It’s the last time I’ll be here,” Jackson said. “I head home and that’s a wrap.”
It was true. This time goodbye felt like the real thing.
