Dear Dumb Guy: How did the Oakland Raiders get away with all that illegal stuff in the 70s? And, is it just me, or did their coach John Madden – circa 1976 – look a whole lot like Danny on the Partridge Family? - Bitter Vikings Fan

Dear Vikings: One question at a time, my man, one question at a time! So let’s take your second question – coincidentally the morally simpler of the two – first.

In 1976, the Madden NFL video game franchise was just beginning to stand up on its wobbly legs. Not much you can do with a few pixels and a controller that amounted to nothing more than four buttons and a rubber tube that you had to blow into, as hard as you could. So Electronic Arts was hard up for ideas, having already sunk millions of dollars into this burgeoning “video game” concept.

That led to the one video game imbroglio that would rival the 15 million copies of “E.T.” buried in the Mojave Wasteland in terms of its sheer notoriety – the decision to make Danny Bonaduce the public face of “Madden 1978.” I will leave the documenting of the details to the VH1s of the world, but suffice it to say, make-up can only go so far.

As for your first question: Those were different times, and protocols were different, and “bittorrent” was never whispered on your neighbor’s lips. So the illegal stuff the Raiders got away with? Take a long hard look and realize that maybe, just maybe, your children are “getting away with” those very same things today.