The Kansas City Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders have played 134 times since the founding of the American Football League in 1960 and Sunday will be the first time they meet as 3-0 teams.
The intense history between the Kansas City Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders goes back so far that the first time they met in 1960, they didn't even have the same names as they do today. That was during the inaugural season of the American Football League (AFL), the date was Oct. 9, 1960, and the squads were known as the Dallas Texans and the Oakland Raiders.
For the record, the visiting Raiders used a 20-point third quarter to open a 20-7 lead and held on for a 20-19 victory at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, TX, sparking a rivalry that continues to simmer, bubble, roil and occasionally boil over to this day.
Over the 10 seasons of AFL football, the Chiefs, who relocated to Kansas City prior to the 1963 season, and the Raiders met 22 times, with each winning 11. They split 20 regular-season games 10 apiece and each won one game in the AFL playoffs: a 41-6 Raiders triumph in a 1968 divisional playoff game and a 17-7 Chiefs victory in the 1969 AFL championship game. That win advanced Kansas City to Super Bowl IV where they defeated the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in the final game before the AFL-NFL merger became official.
The two franchises have continued to go after each other hammer and tongs in the 60 years since then, while also leaving their mark on the NFL as a whole with seven combined Super Bowl championships and 12 appearances total in the big game. In total, the Chiefs have had the better of the individual matchups with a 65-45-2 record with both as NFL teams. Included in that is Kansas City's 10-6 victory over the Raiders in their only NFL postseason meeting, a 1991 Wild Card game. All told, that gives the Chiefs a 76-56-2 advantage in all of their battles since 1960.
But with all of this shared history and all of their memorable confrontations, the series will experience a first when the Chiefs travel to face the Raiders in Allegiant Stadium on Sunday (3:25 p.m. CT/1:25 p.m. MT on CBS).
It will be the first time they bump heads as 3-0 teams.
Both attained that status on Sunday, the Chiefs with a stop-start 24-10 road defeat of the winless Miami Dolphins while the Raiders used 13 unanswered fourth-quarter points to notch a 35-27 road triumph over the New Orleans Saints.
Seeing Kansas City at 3-0 is not a surprise as many expected a rebound from 2025's subpar 6-11 record thanks to the return from injury of quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the addition of Super Bowl LX MVP Kenneth Walker III to the backfield. That has led to a more balanced offense than in years past, even when the Chiefs won three Super Bowls in five years from 2019-23.
A 3-0 record, on the other hand, was definitely not front of mind for a Raiders team that went 3-14 in 2025 and was listed 31st of 32 teams in one outlet's preseason rankings. While quarterback Kirk Cousins has been as efficient as ever and some relative unknowns have added to the offensive contributions of running back Ashton Jeanty and tight end Brock Bowers, it's the defense that has been a true revelation.
A unit whose only recognizable name is defensive end Maxx Crosby has risen to the top of the defensive charts with 10 forced fumbles and nine takeaways after three weeks. Las Vegas is also fourth in sacks with 10, 10th in points allowed with 54 and allowing the seventh-lowest passer rating at 82.2.
But Crosby himself, who has lost 11 of 13 games he has played against the Chiefs in his career, was quick to provide a little post-game perspective for his teammates after the win in New Orleans on Sunday.
"It's a great win, but we've got a (expletive) great team coming into town.," he said as reported by Matt Conner of Arrowhead Addict. "We already know what it is, bro. It's the (expletive) Kansas City Chiefs. Enjoy this tonight. Take care of your bodies, and we're on a warpath to get what we want."
The sentiment was similar, if not quite as colorfully verbalized, from Kansas City coach Andy Reid after Sunday's win, as noted by Vahe Gregorian on X: "The better the two teams are, the better the rivalry," Reid said. "This is what it's all about."
