KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The last time the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders played a December game when the AFC West title was within reach for both teams, linebacker Derrick Johnson was in elementary school in Texas. Johnson, who in his 12th NFL season is the longest-tenured Chiefs player, was 11 years old.

The year was 1995, and the 10-2 Chiefs beat the 8-4 Raiders 29-23 in Oakland on their way to winning the AFC West.

Since, the teams have played some great games worthy of their inclusion in what was once one of pro football’s best and most bitter rivalries. But only a die-hard fan of one team or the other would know that because either the Chiefs or the Raiders -- and sometimes both -- were having lousy seasons and those games were played far from the NFL spotlight.

Those games served as a candle in the window of sorts for those who, like Johnson, were hoping to see Chiefs-Raiders reclaim its former place among NFL rivalries. For those people, the time has arrived.

The 10-2 Raiders and 9-3 Chiefs meet Thursday night at Arrowhead Stadium with the winner earning possession of first place in the NFL’s best division with three games remaining.

“The rivalry is back,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be an old-school type of game.”

Derrick Johnson was in elementary school the last time the Chiefs and Raiders played in December with a division title on the line. John Sleezer/Zuma Press/Icon Sportswire

That rivalry dates to 1960, the first season of the old American Football League. But it started to heat up in 1966, when an eight-year run began when the teams finished 1-2 in their division.

So each team’s seasons were defined by the results of the games between the Chiefs and the Raiders.

“You can go back to the year we won the Super Bowl [1969],” said former Chiefs linebacker Bobby Bell, now a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “People don’t realize this, but the Raiders beat us twice that year. When they came to Kansas City they beat us and when we went out there they beat us. We had to go back to Oakland and play them a third time.”

The Chiefs then broke through with a 17-7 victory that sent them to Super Bowl IV, where they beat the Minnesota Vikings.

“It used to be like this every time we played them,” Bell said. “Every year, we’d be fighting with them for who’s going to be the No. 1 team.”

"Fighting" was often in the literal sense. The teams frequently fought one another on the field, most notably in the 1970 game between the teams at Kansas City’s old Municipal Stadium. Oakland defensive end Ben Davidson speared Chiefs quarterback Lenny Dawson with the crown of his helmet when he was already on the ground. Chiefs wide receiver Otis Taylor intervened, touching off a bench-clearing brawl.

“We hardly played a game against the Raiders when there wasn’t a fight,” Bell said. “I think Al Davis would pick out one of his rookies and put him in the game and tell him to start a fight.

“It’s going to be like the old days in this game. It’s great to see this coming back after so many years. It seems like everybody the last couple of weeks has been talking about the Raiders and Chiefs game. That’s the way it should be because those games were something special. It seems like Denver has been the Chiefs’ rival for a long time. But that’s not the way it always was.”

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Since 1973, the Raiders and Chiefs have played each other 25 times in the regular season in December or January. Only in that 1995 game has the division title been the prize.

The rivalry lived on not only by some notable games between the teams, but through the stories of Bell and others involved. The Chiefs and Raiders over the years have asked former players to speak to the current team before games, and that helps keep the history alive.

“We always have old players come in and talk to us and tell us how violent the games used to be and how physical they used to be,” Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said. “That’s really the main thing that sticks out -- how violent and physical the games were. They would always talk about that.”

Former offensive lineman Ed Budde is one player the Chiefs have at times asked to speak. His career with the Chiefs ended in 1976, but Budde has no trouble getting fired up over the rivalry.

“I don’t like the Chargers and I don’t like the Broncos,” Budde said. “But I hate the Raiders.”

Budde recalled a game in Oakland one year when a woman came out of the stands and down to the playing field. She hit one of Kansas City’s biggest players, tackle Jim Tyrer, over the head with an umbrella.

“Thank God that he had his helmet on,” Budde said.

Those kinds of things were part of what made the rivalry fun. On Thursday night, there might not be umbrella-swinging fans or fistfights between the players. But those things don’t have to happen for the latest edition of the rivalry to be a classic.

“The Chiefs and the Raiders, they’re back at it,” Budde said. “Oakland is in first place and Kansas City is in second.

“Let’s hope it won’t be that way when the game is over.”