HOFame: Special Meeting on Wiz

You get access to uncensored discussion on Steve Wisniewski

Shhhh. Just listen! (well, read aloud if you must). We have a rare chance to be a fly-on-the-wall in a Zoom locker room full of players and coaches with something on their minds.

Remember, this is locker room talk, so be prepared.

Steve Wisniewski, the Raiders' former eight-time All-Pro and All-Decade guard (1989-2001) is eligible only until next year — two more chances — as a Modern-Era candidate for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame Selection Committee has never officially discussed him.

He is on the list of 167 players being pared to 50 in the next couple of weeks by a new 11-person Screening Committee. If he makes the 50, then the full committee of 50 selectors trims the list to 25, allowing Wisniewski to be officially discussed for the first time.

Concerned players and coaches decided to discuss his HOF worthiness, realistically if not officially, in a special Zoom conference meeting last week arranged by Friends of Wiz: Kirk Reynolds, Kevin Gogan and Rich Gannon.

Wisniewski did not know about the meeting.

Similar meetings were held in recent years to raise awareness of the Hall of Fame credentials of the 49ers’ DL Bryant Young and New York Jets’ versatile defensive lineman Joe Klecko. Perhaps not coincidentally, they are both now in the Hall of Fame.

Here are the Friends of Wiz who huddled up in the Zoom call:

Kirk Reynolds: Founder Kirk Reynolds Public Relations, Pac-12 conference executive; San Francisco 49ers director of public relations, Los Angeles Rams public relations assistant. He arranged the call.

QB Rich Gannon, as emcee: Seventeen-year veteran, played with Vikings, Washington, Chiefs, and Raiders. Two-time All-Pro, four-time Pro Bowl, MVP ( 2002). Insightful, passionate, underappreciated broadcaster.

OG Kevin Gogan: Seventeen-year veteran, played with Cowboys, Raiders, 49ers, Dolphins, Chargers. Three-time Pro Bowl, one second-team All-Pro, and two Super Bowl championships.

OG Mark Schlereth: Twelve-year veteran with Washington and Broncos. Two-time Pro Bowl selection and a three-time Super Bowl Champion. Joins Wisniewski on the ballot as a 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame candidate, but wanted to tell how Wiz helped him as a pro.

LB Gary Plummer: Fifteen-year pro football veteran, played for Invaders (USFL), Chargers and 49ers. Undrafted out of Cal, Plummer joined the Oakland Invaders in 1983 and played in the final USFL championship game (1985). Became an immediate starter for the Chargers in 1986. He joined the 49ers in 1994 and was on Super Bowl XXIX winning team. As a Charger, he faced Wisniewski twice a year for eight seasons and has stories to tell.

LB Shane Conlan: Nine-year veteran, played with Bills and Rams. Bills’ first-round pick in 1987 out of Penn State, where he was a teammate of Wisniewski on the 1986 National Championship team. NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year (1987), a three-time Pro Bowl selection, and a three-time second-team All-Pro.

Ron Lynn: Former American football coach and executive. He served as defensive coordinator for Stanford (2008–09), and was a defensive coordinator in the NFL for 11 seasons (1986–96). His coordinating stints were with the San Diego Chargers (1986–91), Cincinnati Bengals (1992–93), and Washington Redskins (1994–96) and USFL’s Oakland Invaders (1983–85).

Contributors who missed the meeting but wanted their opinions heard:

Super Bowl Champion Coach Jon Gruden … Hall of Fame DE Howie Long, two-time All-Pro, Super Bowl XVIII winner … Pro Bowl Linebacker Matt Millen, a 12-year veteran who won four Super Bowls, two with the Raiders and one each with Washington and San Francisco. Like Wiz, he is a Penn State alum.

Shh. It is getting started.

Kirk Reynolds

I appreciate everyone getting together. Rich is going to help lead this. I want you to know that Steve Wisniewski has no clue this is happening. I think everybody on this call believes he belongs in Canton, so we'll kind of let that conversation happen.

Rich Gannon

Kirk (Reynolds) asked me to moderate the discussion. Let me begin by saying that I just ran into Wiz at alumni weekend during the preseason. He's doing great. He's had some health issues, including some issues with his heart, but he knows nothing about this conversation.

Let me just say just a few words about Wiz.

I was blessed to play with a lot of great players, you know. I played with Stink (Schlereth) in Washington, some of those great players, and Bostic and Jacoby, and the Hogs — the offensive line. I was fortunate to play with Gary Zimmerman and Randall McDaniel in Minnesota. Of course, Will Shields, a Hall of famer in Kansas City. Some great players in Kansas City along that offensive line … and still to play with Wiz in Oakland was just such a treat.

You think about who he was as a player … an eight-time Pro Bowler, two-time First-Team All-Pro, six-time second team, All ‘90s … All-Decade Team. Think tough, physical, nasty, ultra competitive, really good on the run, could get get up to the second level, could get out in front of screens, really good hands and was really good in pass protection. I think more the center as kind of the captain. He was kind of that along that offensive line with a lot of the protections and communications along the offensive line. Did a great job developing some young left tackles.

When you look at his body of work, I think there's a couple of things I keep in mind. He played with a lot of different head coaches and a lot of different coordinators under Al Davis … I mean, they fired coaches about every year.

Former Raiders QB Rich Gannon. Wisniewski preferred Gannon throwing bombs to dropping the “F” kind.

When you’re playing with a lot of different coaches and a lot of different schemes, it's challenging for a player. And on top of that, go back and look at how many quarterbacks were playing.

There wasn't a lot of stability at the quarterback position during his 13 seasons. I came kind of late in the process with Wiz and played with him for two, three years.

But there were a lot of different quarterbacks that they ran through there….When you look at not playing in the playoffs every year, not playing in AFC Championship games or Super Bowls … that certainly had something to do with it (not getting recognition).

And it didn’t have anything to do with his body of work when you look at the fact that the guy played in 206 games, 206 starts … He didn’t miss starts; he was a real tough guy.

He was awesome with off-the-field leadership. When there's a problem in Oakland, everybody went to person — Steve Wisniewski. He had a great relationship with the coaches. He could handle problems in the locker room, on and off the field. He was great in the community.

His body of work merits strong consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The problem, as we know guys, there's only 378 of our brothers in those hallowed halls. So it’s not an easy place to get into.

It’s just important when you bring up somebody's name for consideration in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I've got to drop what I'm doing to make sure I jump on the call, because I know how hard it is, and I know the process is very difficult, but I certainly want to make sure that we recognize Wiz and what he has done.

Gannon

Here is some input from a few people who know Wiz well, but couldn’t get on the call.

Jon Gruden

Thank you for helping Steve! I think he went to eight pro bowls, was on the All Decade Team, but he was a true tempo setter in the raider offensive line. Throwback nasty but very athletic. Team leader. He was a great puller. We ran our power and gaps schemes to the right for the most part because of his ability to adjust. We led the league in rushing and it was largely because of him.

Was a unanimous team captain the four years I was there. If he isn’t a Hall of Famer at the guard position who is? He rose to the occasion against the Leon Letts, John Randles, and Bruce Smiths. When he was freed up in pass protection, he could puncture your lung. Too bad nobody watches the films anymore. Probably the best communicator and stunt switcher I have seen it that position. Off the field he was five stars.

Howie Long

Extremely physical, relentless tone setter. Was an all-day sucker, play number 70 looked like play number 1. He challenged defenders to play at a level of nonstop physicality, from snap to whistle. Mean. Got in defenders’ heads. Ironically a quiet, cordial guy off the field.

Matt Millen

I knew Steve since he was in high school. Demeanor hasn’t changed one bit. Old-school tough and football smart. Never minded head-butting after practice with me to get better.

We crossed in his rookie year — I knew immediately he had it, understood the “why” of the offense- also understood to NEVER stand down. Was a snap-to-whistle player and played angry with a mean streak. I loved him. I played against him in one preseason game and was exactly how I explained him: had excellent change of direction and could anchor. Could pull and identify and hunt you down.

I’m shocked he’s not in the Hall. I’ve played against a lot of HOF players and he is easily on their level or better. What set him apart was he never let up and he was smart enough to adapt and adjust to different styles. He would stay in the brawl with me, and I’d watch him play against scheme guys and he’d run them down. I believe the voters have missed on this guy — as good as any I ever played.

Gannon

Jon mentioned conditioning. During one offseason, Wiz went to our strength and conditioning coach. He said, “I want to run a marathon.” He lost 35 pounds and ran a marathon. You talk about conditioning late in games, you know. He was really good late in games, and conditioning was never an issue with Wiz.

I think when you talk to a lot of players … I’ve talked to Will Shields and Randall McDaniel and their guys. I know Mike Munchak mentioned earlier to Kirk that when preparing for an opponent, you'd often look at what another guard did against him, obviously. Mike played at Penn State, and Wiz was a Penn State guy. And so Mike watched a lot of AFC Games and would watch what Wiz did.

Mark Schlereth (aka “Stink”)

I'm on this ballot and I'm on this call because he's that good. You know, it's really interesting for me … We had two film guys in in Denver, and anytime I had a tough opponent — whether it was John Randall, Cortez Kennedy, Warren Sapp, you know, the best D tackles in football that week.

There were 2 films that I would require. I asked the film guys to get Bruce Matthews and Steve Wisniewski … I studied those 2 guys every time I had any tough matchup. That's the film I would get. And it may be two years earlier, when Wiz played against that particular guy. But that was the film that I considered and nobody else. Those were the two guys when I studied to prepare myself to play against the NFL’s elite-level tackles. It was always those 2 guys. I knew those guys had put in the preparation those guys had put in the work, and I knew that they had come up with a plan that that was going to help shut down that first move. My whole thought process as a player was, “If I can stop your go-to move, I’ll always be able t react to your secondary stuff. But you're not beating me with your go-to stuff.” And I knew that Wiz prepared that way. I knew that Matthew's prepared that way.

I can't tell you how much Wiz film I watched over the course of my career preparing myself to play, but I guarantee you it was a ton because he was that good. He's that good a player.

Like I said, I'm on this freaking ballot, and I'm on this call because I used him, as you know, as a study. I was a student of his because I thought he was that good. So he was very important in my career, simply because I wanted to be the best I could be, and I knew that he was.

Shane Conlan

Well, we went to school together at Penn State, and he was young, and I was obviously older. And then things changed. When we got into the NfL, I said, Holy shit! What happened to you? He was a bad man, Oh my God. I hated go against him.

Quite honestly, I thought he was already in the Hall of Fame. To be honest with you, I don’t follow it that closely, but he's one bad man. That's why he and Bruce Smith used to get into it. He used to get him so riled up that it was awesome. But he was a great player, an awesome kid at Penn State. And then a man when I played [him] in the NFL. It was like, “Oh my God, I can’t wait for this game to be over.”

Kevin Gogan

It's pretty clear how good Steve was on the field. Everybody on this call knows … You really can't judge a man's heart, and whether he was better than you were or if you were better than him.

As a defensive lineman, you weren't gonna outwork the guy. There was just no way you were gonna outwork him from the first snap and whistle to the last snap and last whistle.

To be brutally honest, at that time the Raiders were a complete shit show. I mean, when you get to game day and you pull that white grease board out and you change your whole game plan the morning of the game. You need somebody to pull that team together and rally the troops because everybody's honestly saying, “Well, what the fuck's going on here? This is ridiculous.” Steve was that guy and always was that guy, no matter what the situation or the circumstance. He was there to rally it, even if he knew it was probably complete bullshit. And that's a real team leader.

That guy was giving away Pro Bowls just by playing with him. He gave one to me.

I think that in my opinion, he deserves this, or I wouldn't be here.

And he’s really high quality along with his play. Personally, I wanna thank you guys because I am friends with Steve and I think he's a hell of a guy.

Gary Plummer

Unfortunately, I played against him twice a year when I was down here in San Diego. And all the things that you guys have said, Shane, and Stink and Gogan … I mean, it was truly that way.

You have to be a maniac to play this game, and you have to think you're better than everyone else, and I always in my mind knew that sometime in the third quarter, I was going to outwork somebody. I was going to wear them down, and that was my thing.

That never happened with Steve Wisniewski. Much like you guys were already saying that dude from the first snap to the last snap, he was balls to the wall.

As AFC West rivals, former Chargers LB Gary Plummer played Wisniewski twice a season.

A very funny story: My thumb doesn't ever sit right even to this day.

I had casted my thumb from having it broken the previous week, and, like an idiot, decided to play against the Raiders and Wiz, who as everybody knows, has unbelievable hands. When they get on you you're done. They're clamps. And so I used the cast and hit him right in the nuts, broke the cast. When they pulled that PIN out of my thumb it was bent. I mean the dude never flinched.

Talking crap during a game was, you know, just one of the things that I did. You could get to a lot of guys, especially, I always thought, offensive guys — of course, not the guards we have on here today! But you know, I always thought that they were mental midgets. You knew that you could get into their heads, and you weren't getting into the head of Steve Wizniewski. I mean, the dude never responded. I would find out information about his childhood and try to use it on him, and he literally would never say a word. So all the high-character stuff that you guys are mentioning I could definitely see that that's the guy. But he had it all — speed, strength, quickness, agility.

Yeah, I played against a bunch of Hall of Famers, and he definitely belongs in that crew.

Gannon (on durability)

Look at 206 games, 206 starts. The guy never missed starts. He played through all kind of injuries, and I just think that the consistency and the production.

Really go back and study the tape. And Jon Gruden brings up a great point. How much tape are we really watching when we're trying to figure out who belongs in the Pro football Hall of Fame?

Just grab any game any week, any season, and just check out number 76. The guy was a consistent performer.

Ron Lynn

I had the opportunity to work with him, albeit on the other side of the ball, and to watch him in practice each and every day. We always tried to and see where we could go with our overs and our unders, and our even defenses, and you know, even going far as to be in same 46 stuff.

And there was no change in the armor.

I mean, [if] you put him in with a wide-3 alignment guy, he was going to knock his butt off. You put him with a 2-alignment, guy head up, rise up, and he'd knock his ass off. If you put him where there was a guy in the gap inside. He was quick enough to do that, and as Jon Gruden and Frank mentioned, the guy could pull. He was athletic. He could get into the hole. He always had his pads up the field.

One of my favorite Wiz stories was in a preseason game. Gary, you'll remember this. Junior Seau … we had drafted. He's holding out the whole preseason and three days before the season starts, before the last preseason game … he shows up, and he's bouncing around. “Hey, coach, man, we're all ready to go. Let's go.”

So, Junior, all these other guys have been busting their ass for the last four weeks. And you come in here bouncing around. I said, “Here's the deal. We're gonna play you a big part of this game.” It's the last preseason game, which nobody really ever did that at that point in time. But he had no snaps.

First play of the game, we're in a bubble over Wiz and Wiz comes off the ball, and in perfect form just drives his hands up, and somehow ends up through Junior's hands and hits him right in the stomach and knocks him backwards, and Junior's eyes you could see from the sideline they got about this big looking through the face mask, and it … you know .. it was — Amen that ain't happening again. Second play. Same thing happens. He hits him again and just knocked him silly.

Third play, all of a sudden, Junior, who was gonna play a lot that game, gets thrown out because he got crazy and started going after Wiz — swinging, and that kind of thing. He was out of the game. He had a preseason of three plays, and then we opened with Dallas in Dallas.

You know I heard some stuff Wiz was a dirty player. I never thought that at all. I watched a film on him and never felt that at all. I thought he was competitive. I thought he was going to work his ever-loving butt off. Best effort.

I think Rich and Kevin your guys both referred to him in the locker room, in the “insane asylum,” I guess, is what we could call it. But he was the guy that that kept everything kind of working there in the locker room, and we know all know there are a lot of great players who had locker room presence that may not have been the best thing going for the team. But he sure did.

Former Raider great Steve Wisniewski, seen here kicking ass and taking names: “{Wiz had} unbelievable hands. When they get on you, you're done.”

Gannon

And I'll tell you a quick story. I was in the huddle my first year in ’99. It's early in September. I think we're playing the Cowboys in a real hot game. We're inside a couple minutes to go in the game, and we're going to win the game. We just got to make a first down or two. Run the ball.

And I come in there, and I'm emotional. And you know I'm dropping a few F-bombs to try and motivate the guys up front, and Wiz is just sitting there. He's as calm as can be. His face is a little red, because it's like 90 degrees out there. It's hot and humid, and he just says.

“Hey, Rich! Can you watch your language?” And he was like, “I'm serious. You know what I mean.”

Plummer

Regarding his reputation as a dirty guy … I'm like, you know … he was just a different guy. He just had a real calm demeanor about him. Like he could get a little chippy if you got chippy with him. Otherwise, he would, like Stink said, just go about kicking people's ass and taking names, and that was kind of it.

OK, that’s it. Please exit quietly and don’t take any jerseys. If you have a vote in the HOF selections, consider what his teammates, opponents and coaches had to say to each other.

Remember, you were never there.