Tom Flores, who coached the Raiders to championships in both Oakland and Los Angeles, reportedly made it all the way to Canton Saturday night.
Flores was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame at the NFL Honors event on his third attempt as a coaches candidate, receiving the mandatory 80% of the 48 selectors on a yes or no basis. The result was reported by ESPN's Paul Gutierrez.
There has been no official announcement. As many as eight people could be elected, including former Raiders and Green Bay Packers defensive back Charles Woodson.
The last two years, Flores came up short, missing out on last year's expanded "Centennial Class" in favor of Jimmy Johnson and Bill Cowher, and also two years ago when the format was different and he was up against former NFL players.
Flores joins John Madden, who was inducted in 2006, as Raiders coaches who have been enshrined. Al Davis, who was the Raiders head coach, general manager and eventually owner, was voted in to the Hall of Fame in 1992.
This year's Hall of Fame class is scheduled to be inducted on Aug. 8 in Canton, Ohio.
Flores was head coach of the Raiders for nine seasons, named by Davis as the successor for Madden after he retired after the 1978 season. He was the first Latino head coach to win a Super Bowl.
The Raiders won the Super Bowl twice under Flores following the 1980 and 1983 seasons. The first came when the Raiders became the first wild-card team to win a championship, 27-10, over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl XV in New Orleans.
It was no normal season, given the Raiders had traded popular starting quarterback Ken Stabler in the offseason and Jim Plunkett emerged from the bench to replace an injured Dan Pastorini, who arrived in the trade for Stabler.
There was also the cloud of an impending move to Los Angeles, with owner Davis involved in a lawsuit against Pete Rozelle and the NFL. The Raiders moved to Los Angeles following the 1981 season.
"I'm not sure it works with anybody else," former Raiders linebacker Matt Millen said of Flores' leadership in 2019. "In that era you could stockpile some strong personalities, but it had to work from the top. And Tom was a guy who didn't feel like he had to be in control all the time."
The environment, Flores said in a 2017 interview, was a challenge.
"You're in Los Angeles. You're in tinsel town," Flores said. "All of a sudden you've got people doing stuff they would never do in Oakland. You've got to live with that."
In 1983, the Raiders blew out Washington, 38-9, a team that entered the game having scored the most points in NFL history, in Tampa.
The Raiders postseason run was one of the most convincing in NFL history, with wins over Pittsburgh (38-10) and Seattle (30-14) before demolishing Washington.
The Raiders won 11 or more games four times in Flores' nine seasons.
A former quarterback for the Raiders when Davis was head coach, Flores, a Fresno, Calif., native, also earned a Super Bowl ring as a Raiders assistant following the 1976 season under Madden and as a player backing up Len Dawson for the Kansas City Chiefs following the 1969 season.
Upon retirement from the Raiders, Flores was coaxed back into coaching by the Seattle Seahawks in 1992 but was 14-34 in three seasons — a career move which likely slowed his ascension to the Hall of Fame.
In all, Flores was 97-87 in his career overall including 8-3 in the playoffs. His regular-season record with the Raiders as head coach was 84-53 in the regular season.
From 1987 through 2018, Flores was a radio analyst for Raiders games on the radio with play-by-play man Greg Papa.
After playing college football at College of the Pacific (now University of the Pacific), Flores played in Bakersfield for a semipro league in California before landing with the Raiders in the fledgling AFL in 1960. He stayed with the Raiders through 1966, with Davis arriving as head coach and general manager in 1963.
Flores was traded to the Buffalo Bills along with wide receiver Art Powell in exchange for quarterback Daryle Lamonica, where he played before joining the Chiefs in their championship season.
He was an assistant coach for the Raiders from 1972-78.
