The Lions will be in Oakland on Sunday, where their defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham has coached several times before in his long career, and he says he always enjoys a trip to the Black Hole.
He just wishes Raiders fans would leave his family out of it.
“I was in the AFC West forever with three different teams,” Cunningham said, via MLive.com. “I know a little bit about these guys. It’s an interesting place to play. I’m looking forward to going there and I know what’s going to happen the minute I walk on the field. Some of those fans, they are not going away. The only thing I don’t like is they call my family members a lot of bad names. I look forward to coaching there. We had a good run when I was in Kansas City. We played against them when I was in San Diego. Now I’m playing against them with the Lions. I can’t wait to get there.”
By acknowledging publicly that it bothers him, Cunningham has probably just ensured that more fans will call his family bad names. Cunningham says he’s not averse to saying something back.
“If you ever watch ESPN, there are quite a few shots of me yelling back,” Cunningham said. “It was pretty intense between the Chiefs and Raiders, but it seems like everywhere I’ve been it’s been the same thing. I’m looking forward to going there.”