Columnist Dean Juipe: Raiders thrilling fans, Humm

Dean Juipe

Friday, Jan. 12, 2001 | 10:37 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Oakland's football reputation is easily identified.

When the Raiders are playing well the hardscrabble community bubbles with excitement and the "crazies" saturate the Coliseum on game days, providing a lively backdrop for a franchise that enjoys its skull-and-crossbow imagery.

The bandwagon strains to accommodate its load, with seemingly everyone in the area living and breathing football.

And that's precisely the situation there today as the 13-4 Raiders prepare for Sunday's AFC championship game with the 14-4 Baltimore Ravens. The fans are rabid.

"It's incredible," said David Humm, the Las Vegas native and football legend who is part of the Raiders' pre- and post-game radio broadcasting crew on the team's flagship station in Oakland. "It's a carnival atmosphere and it's fun for all of us.

"Winning solves all problems."

Coming off consecutive 8-8 seasons, when the current season opened the Raiders were 35-1 in Las Vegas to win the Super Bowl. Now, at the Station Casinos, they are a 4-5 favorite; Minnesota is 5-2, New York 3-1 and Baltimore 4-1.

Super Bowl favorite is not a role the Raiders were expected to fill, yet here they are two wins from achieving the sport's ultimate goal.

Humm, completing his sixth year in his current role, is among the many who have been won over by the team's assortment of play-makers and tough guys.

"I love this team," he said Thursday from his office at the Idea Center in Las Vegas. "It's a very athletic team that has a great deal of positive chemistry."

He said head coach Jon Gruden sets the tone.

"I thought 'Who is he?' when they hired him (in 1998) but he's a brilliant coach," Humm said. "I played for two great coaches in Tom Flores (with the Raiders) and Tom Osborne (at Nebraska) and Gruden is right there with them. He's diligent -- he comes in at 3 a.m. every day -- and he has no fear and his halftime adjustments are like 'Wow, unbelievable.' "

"The players are all over him now."

Beyond Gruden -- who studied under authorities such as Bill Walsh in San Francisco, Mike Holmgren in Green Bay and Ray Rhodes in Philadelphia -- the Raiders are bolstered by an array of veterans with something to prove.

"(Quarterback) Rich Gannon is miserable and never happy, but that's not a bad thing," Humm said. "He's there at 6 every morning and he works hard.

"It's also (running back) Tyrone Wheatley coming in (from New York) off the scrap heap and being so tough that the team becomes tougher.

"It's also (receiver) Andre Rison being the Citizen of the Year and having his motor running nonstop.

"And it's other guys like (defense back) Eric Allen giving their all, and Gruden mixing it into something that has become this successful."

Humm, 48, reflects his team's vibrancy and revels in the personal satisfaction he derives from the five hours he puts in each game day with radio partners George Atkinson and Artie Gigantino.

"We have a good time but we take the game serious," Humm said, mimicking the attitude of the raucous Raiders fans who are delirious in anticipation, the Super Bowl only a single victory away.