Lifelong Raider finds a Super Bowl-bound home with rival Chiefs

By Case Keefer (contact)

Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020 | 2 a.m.

Stefen Wisniewski felt the usual, elevated level of intensity when he stepped onto the field for the Chiefs’ Week 14 game against the rival Raiders.

He just had a tough time fully buying into it. The Chiefs’ left guard played as hard as usual, of course, but he couldn’t muster enmity for a team he was supposed to hate.

“The Raider organization was great for me,” Wisniewski reflected Monday at Super Bowl Opening Night.

The 30-year-old lineman spent a relatively short four seasons in Oakland — though he started in all but two games during the span from 2011-2014 — but his ties with the Raiders go much further back. Stefen Wisniewski grew up a fan because of his uncle Steve Wisniewski, a 13-year Raider standout, eight-time Pro Bowler and member of the NFL’s All Decade Team in the 1990s.

Stefen will be the only player on the field Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium in Super Bowl 54 between the Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers that’s a former member of the franchise now known as the Las Vegas Raiders.

“I’m sure there are a lot of fans in the (Oakland) area that will be sad about it but those facilities, that stadium aren’t the greatest,” Wisniewski said of the move. “I hear they’re building top-notch facilities and stadium in Vegas. I think long-term, it will be great.”

Stefen’s father, Leo Wisniewski, also played three seasons in the NFL with the Colts but his career had ended before Stefen was born. For Stefen, therefore, it was all Raiders.

Steve was no distant uncle, as even though Stefen grew up across the country in Pennsylvania, he’d make frequent trips to Raiders’ games and glean all the football knowledge he could while there.

“My uncle taught me so much before I ever got to the NFL,” Stefen said. “His work ethic was through the roof. I thought he was crazy. He taught me you want to be the hardest-working guy in the building, you want to always be working after practice. You always want to pick up one detail here, one detail there, one thing to be getting better at every day and if you stack that up day after day after day, eventually you’ll be great.”

With Steve accepting a job as a Raiders’ offensive line coach in 2011 right as Stefen was graduating from Penn State, it seemed destined he would wind up in Oakland. Sure enough, the Raiders selected Stefen in the second round of the NFL Draft months later.

“My rookie year, (Steve) showed me a lot of specific techniques that still help,” Stefen said, “he taught me how to be a pro.”

In at least one important regard, Stefen has taken his football career a step beyond any place his relatives reached. Neither Leo nor Steve ever played in a Super Bowl.

None of Leo’s Colts teams ever reached the postseason, while Steve lost twice in the AFC Championship Game and twice in the divisional playoff round. Steve’s final game was the Raiders’ infamous 16-13 loss to the Patriots in the 2001 Tuck Rule game.

The Raiders’ most recent Super Bowl appearance came the next year, in a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Stefen has now been to two Super Bowls, as he also won a ring with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017 as the starting left guard — a switch from center where he played with the Raiders.

“They’re just really pumped, really happy for me,” Stefen said when asked if there’s any jealousy from his father and uncle on his championship success.

But no one could be more ecstatic this time around than Stefen himself, largely because of the way this season started. He had fallen out of favor with the Eagles and wound up one of their final training-camp roster cuts.

For the first time in nearly a decade, Stefen spent September away from the field.

“When you’re on your couch watching football, you never know if you’re going to get another call,” Stefen said. “That obviously crossed my mind. I knew I was still good enough to play but you never know if you’re going to get another opportunity.”

An opportunity came after week 5 with Kansas City having lost their first game — 19-13 at home against Indianapolis — and reeling from cluster injuries that included the offensive line. The Chiefs were drawn to Stefen’s versatility and ability to play all three interior offensive line spots, but soon learned they got much more after signing him.

The drive Stefen says he learned from Steve shined through to Chiefs offensive line coach Andy Heck.

“He’s a guy who always does the work that’s necessary,” Heck said. “You know everyone has the size, everyone has the strength, but it’s who wants to put in the work and compete. He’s a guy that always wants to compete.”

Stefen has started the last four Chiefs’ games at left guard, including both playoff wins, but isn’t expected to in the Super Bowl. He was filling in for the injured Andrew Wylie, who was listed as a full practice participant on Tuesday and will almost surely regain his spot.

Stefen isn’t stressed about playing time. The Super Bowl is a long way from his Raiders’ teams where he said his main regret was, “not being on the winning end much,” and it’s a lot better than watching from the couch where he spent his time four months ago.

“It was definitely humbling to realize it could all just go away like that and you’re not really in control of it,” Stefen said. “To get to play again, to get to start again, to be in the Super Bowl, it’s a story I couldn’t even have written if I tried to.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.