{"id":155025,"date":"2025-06-24T15:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-24T15:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/155025\/"},"modified":"2025-06-24T15:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T15:01:10","slug":"las-vegas-raiders-send-prayers-and-in-mourning-after-announcing-death-of-former-player-aged-just-60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/155025\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Raiders send prayers and in mourning after announcing death of former player aged just 60"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE Las Vegas Raiders announced the death of a former player on Monday.<\/p>\n

The NFL<\/a> team released a statement on the late player, aged just 60.<\/p>\n

\"Rich<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Former NFL offensive lineman Rich Stephens playing as a member of the Oakland Raiders in 1995Credit: Getty\"Portrait<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

The Las Vegas Raiders announced the death of Stephens on MondayCredit: Las Vegas Raiders<\/p>\n

The Raiders<\/a> honored a former player from their days when they resided in Los Angeles and Oakland, California.<\/p>\n

The franchise sent out a statement and announced that former offensive lineman Rich Stephens has died at the age of 60.<\/p>\n

“The Raiders Family is mourning the passing of Rich Stephens, who played in two seasons with the Silver and Black,” the Raiders’ statement read.<\/p>\n

“… The thoughts of the entire Raider Nation are with Rich’s family at this time.”<\/p>\n

The St. Louis native Stephens stood at 6-foot-7 and weighed 310 pounds as he played college football<\/a> at Tulsa.<\/p>\n

He would be a ninth-round pick by the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> in 1989 and play in the NFL for two seasons, both with the Raiders.<\/p>\n

In 1993, he played 16 games with the Raiders.<\/p>\n

During that campaign, the Raiders made the playoffs for the final time in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Stephens then missed the 1994 season before appearing in 13 games in 1995.<\/p>\n

The Missouri native’s last season in the NFL came in the first season of the Raiders’ second stint in Oakland.<\/p>\n

Patrick Mahomes sends prayers after watching devastating incident as Kansas City Chiefs return to practice<\/p>\n

The franchise went 8-8 and missed the playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Raiders stayed in Oakland from 1995 until 2020, when they moved to Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Fans expressed their sorrow over the passing of Stephens on social media.<\/p>\n

“RIP Rich,” one wrote.<\/p>\n

“Rest up big man. Once a Raider always a Raider,” another commented.<\/p>\n

NFL important dates 2025 season<\/p>\n

March 12 – Free Agency begins<\/p>\n

April 24-26 – NFL Draft in Green Bay, Wisconsin<\/p>\n

September 4 – 2025 season opener (TBC vs Eagles)<\/p>\n

November 27 – Thanksgiving Day triple header<\/p>\n

January 4, 2026 – End of regular-season<\/p>\n

February 8, 2026 – Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California<\/p>\n

“Rest easy Uncle Rich,” a third said.<\/p>\n

Before playing in the NFL, Stephens had a two-year stint with the Sacramento Surge of the World League of American Football, which is a developmental league that featured eight teams in the US and Canada and overseas teams.<\/p>\n

Stephens was part of a Surge team that won a World Bowl title in 1992 before the league was suspended and restructured.<\/p>\n

He would then join the Raiders.<\/p>\n

“Rich was dearly loved within the Raiders Organization as his personality was a blessing to the morale and wellness of many,” his stlfuneral.com obituary reads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Las Vegas Raiders announced the death of a former player on Monday. The NFL team released a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2065],"tags":[7,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525,578],"class_list":{"0":"post-155025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-las-vegas","10":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","11":"tag-lasvegas","12":"tag-lasvegasraiders","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-raiders","15":"tag-section-sportamerican-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114738946916458096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}