Nobody beat the Wiz: Steve Wisniewski all-time Raider great

Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series acquainting fans with the Raiders’ illustrious 60-year history as the team moves to Las Vegas for the 2020 season.

There was a stretch during the 1990s where among offensive guards in the NFL nobody beat the “Wiz.”

Steve Wisniewski wasn’t just one of the best linemen in the league for the duration of his 13-year career with the Raiders, he was perhaps the most reliable.

Coach Jon Gruden once said the left guard is “very much a part of the history of the Raiders.”

“He’s extremely powerful, is gifted with great feet for a big man and has an incredible aptitude for football,” Gruden wrote of Wisniewski. “He can probably play any position on the line with ease. He’s athletic, smart, tough as nails, has never really had any serious injuries. He is first in line for all the drills, never makes excuses. He’s not overly vocal, but when he says something, it carries a lot of sting.”

After he was acquired in a draft-night trade with the Cowboys in 1989, Wisniewski played in 206 of a possible 208 games for the franchise, all starts.

His accolades speak for themselves. The former two-time All-American at Penn State was named to eight Pro Bowls and was a first-team All-Pro in both 1991 and 1992, adding second-team honors six times. Wisniewski was named to the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 1990s.

His reputation was a bit more complicated.

Today, the 53-year old is a licensed minister and has always been known as a friendly person with a great heart. But between the white lines, that wasn’t always the case.

Wisniewski racked up a laundry list of fines and once drew a stern warning letter from then-NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. He has been named to a multitude of dirtiest NFL players of all-time lists and placed No. 4 on ESPN’s rankings of dirtiest players in any team sport, just behind Dennis Rodman.

Wisniewski, who has a bachelor’s degree in marketing, never embraced the label.

“How absurd is it that I’m thought of as dirty?” Wisniewski once said in a Sports Illustrated story on the dirtiest players in the NFL. “I’m clean-cut. I don’t wear any jewelry. I don’t have tattoos. I don’t drink or do drugs. I’m involved in my church and with youth charities. My family is my No. 1 priority, and I coach 4- and 6-year-olds in soccer. I don’t use abusive language. No one I’ve blocked has ever been carted off with a serious injury.”

Gruden, who convinced Wisniewski to put off retirement and return to the Raiders for one last season in 2001 during Gruden’s first stint at the helm, penned a column about the star left guard at the time.

“When I came to the Raiders, I’d heard a lot of things about Wiz,” Gruden wrote. “The word was he was a great lineman and a tough, mean, ornery guy. When I got here, he was everything people said as far as being a lineman, but he also was one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever been around.”

After playing his entire career with the Raiders and being a part of the move from Los Angeles back to Oakland in 1995, Wisniewski remained in the Bay Area and focused on his faith.

He spent the 2011 season as the assistant offensive line coach for the Raiders and has served as an ambassador for the franchise.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.