Al Davis reveled in the outlaw image. He was a villain straight out of central casting. He slicked his hair back, wore silver and black sweat suits and cursed a blue streak in the Mile High Stadium press box. It’s impossible to create a better fit for the role. Davis provided fuel for one of the NFL’s best matchups. He passed away in 2011, and it’s fair to wonder whether he took the Broncos-Raiders rivalry to his grave.

It’s been fizzling for a decade, and after the buildup for the Broncos-Patriots game at New England last week, Denver’s game Sunday at winless Oakland feels like an undercard.

“Right now, it’s been pretty lopsided,” said Raiders defensive back Charles Woodson. “We have to get back to what it used to be.”

Broncos vs. Raiders once dripped with venom. During one memorable John Elway news conference, a reporter from a small Colorado radio station barked out, “John, one word: Oakland Raiders.” Elway replied, “That’s two.”

But the point was made. The games lit fuses with fans, turned gleans into glares and teeth into fangs. The Raiders were to the Broncos what the Detroit Red Wings were to the Avalanche.

So it’s a bit odd that Sunday’s game feels like an afterthought. After a crush of media at Dove Valley last week, the press corps thinned, drawn to Le- Bron James’ return to Denver, this time with the Cleveland Cavaliers, to the Avalanche’s recovery, to the high school football playoffs.

Broncos vs. Raiders doesn’t move the needle anymore.

“It’s a division game,” said Denver safety T.J. Ward. “I guess in that way it’s a rivalry.”

The strained connection mocks the previous hostility. Before there was the Madden video game curse, there were Broncos cursing at Madden.

The watershed moment came in 1977. The Broncos were undefeated when they trampled the Raiders 30-7 on Oct. 16 that season. Star linebacker Tom Jackson, Denver’s vocal team leader, yelled “It’s all over, fat man” to Oakland coach John Madden. The Orange Crush became real and relevant, sending the Broncos to their first Super Bowl three months later with a win over the despised Raiders in the AFC title game.

The teams’ rivalry started in 1960, but it didn’t truly begin until the 1977 season. The Broncos opened with five victories in their first seven games against Oakland, including beating them in back-to-back weeks in 1962. But from 1963 through 1976, the Raiders stomped the Broncos, winning of 24 of their 27 meetings. Davis’ teams were easy to hate when he coached them, beginning in 1963, and owned them, beginning in 1972. The Raiders featured renegades with long hair, questionable character and amazing ability. Famed columnist Jim Murray once wrote, “Davis specialized in getting so many players who seemed malcontents or immersed in controversy where they were that the Oakland franchise came into focus as a kind of Devil’s Island of football.”

In 1977, parody became parity. Over the next 35 meetings, Oakland won 21 and Denver won 14. The Broncos weren’t the Raiders’ equals, but they were on a level playing field, an opponent circled in red. Rivalries need respect as a necessary ingredient. Even when one team is awful, the other team believes it can lose.

Now, that notion is hard to fathom. The Broncos have won the past five meetings, and the Raiders have been mostly irrelevant since playing in the Super Bowl of the 2002 season.

“Quite honestly, our game has changed a lot. The Denver Broncos now are not the Denver Broncos they were before,” said Raiders coach Tony Sparano, whose team has been more competitive since he took charge four games ago. “They have a different quarterback, a different style of offense. … One of the things we have to do right now is take great pride when we put that helmet on with a Raiders logo on it, to play with great effort.”

Effort? What happened to barbaric behavior?

The boiling point in the feud came during the Mike Shanahan era. Davis made Shanahan the league’s youngest head coach in 1988 after his successful stint as an assistant in Denver. But four games into the 1989 season, Davis canned Shanahan, who returned to the Denver staff that year.

In 1994, as the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, Shanahan began what would be nearly two decades of retaliation, Shanahan alleging that Davis owed him $200,000. According to “Coaching Confidential,” the 49ers were irritated that Davis was on their side of the field during warm-ups. Grouse after grouse led to a quarterback firing a go-route ball off Davis’ leg. Davis gave Shanahan the middle finger.

Shanahan’s bitterness toward Davis motivated his hatred for the Raiders when Shanahan became Denver’s coach in 1995. Shanahan’s Broncos shut out the Raiders 27-0 in his first game against Oakland. He won 11 of his first 12 against the Raiders and finished 21-7 overall, with eight season sweeps.

Elway, whom the NFL kept Davis from acquiring in a draft-day trade in 1983, went 7-1 against the Raiders with Shanahan as his coach and never lost at home during that stretch.

Since its last Super Bowl, in the 2002 season, Oakland has become a dumpster fire, cooling the rivalry. Sixteen QBs have played in Denver-Oakland games since, including Tim Tebow, JaMarcus Russell and Rick Mirer.

Peyton Manning hasn’t lost to Oakland since joining the Broncos in 2012, winning the first four matchups by an average margin of 20 points. The Raiders have scored more than 20 points only twice this season. But Oakland continues to be a difficult place for road teams to win, in part because of the raucous fans and colorful outfits.

Yet it’s only another stop for the bus, not a season-defining game.

“I don’t hear much talk about it,” said Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas. “It’s a rivalry game. But it’s just one of them in our division.”

Troy E. Renck: trenck@denverpost.com or twitter.com/troyrenck

Colorful characters

The Broncos-Raiders game was one of the NFL’s best rivalries until Denver’s recent streak of domination. Broncos reporter Troy E. Renck looks at some memorable characters in the series:

Tom Jackson, Broncos linebacker

The defining moment in Broncos history, at the time, came in 1977 when Jackson said “It’s all over, fat man” to Oakland coach John Madden.

John Madden, Raiders coach

“For some reason (Jackson) didn’t like me. He usually yelled when the Broncos were winning. In Oakland he never yelled much,” Madden wrote in his book “One Knee Equals Two Feet.”

Al Davis, Raiders coach and owner

Davis’ teams were 24-2-1 against the Broncos from 1963-76. Hiring and then firing Mike Shanahan fueled the rivalry. The Raiders crushed Denver 59-14 in 2010, giving Davis his last big win to savor.

Mike Shanahan, Raiders and Broncos coach

Shanahan despised Davis over firing and contract issues. Shanahan won 11 of his first 12 games against the Raiders. And he was on San Francisco’s coaching staff when a 49ers quarterback hit Davis with a ball during pregame warm-ups.

John Elway, Broncos quarterback

The NFL nixed Oakland’s attempt to acquire Elway in the 1983 draft. Elway struggled early in his career vs. Oakland before winning seven of final eight games.

Matt Millen, Raiders linebacker

One of many future TV analysts in the rivalry. Millen, who came to respect Elway, said of Elway to The New York Times: “When he first came in the league, I hated him. He was very talented. He won. He got things done. It drove me nuts.”