To clear up a slight misconception: The torch Tommie Smith will light in Mexico City on Monday night is not the same one that was burning the night he and John Carlos raised their fists on the victory stand at the 1968 Olympics. The Raiders-Texans game that night will be played in a different stadium than the one in which Smith and Carlos made their legendary gesture of protest.
But, to be clear, Smith is bringing the spirit of that protest 48 years ago to that Monday night game, and he has a kindred spirit in the man he’s honoring, the late Al Davis — and in Davis’s son Mark, the Raiders owner.