By Rick Dean
The Capital-Journal
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Last Sunday he played a game at Lambeau Field, the legendary Green Bay stadium where loud, passionate fans make it extremely difficult for visiting teams to win.

Next Sunday he'll be back home at Arrowhead Stadium, another place where loud, passionate fans give him and his Kansas City teammates one of the NFL's best home-field advantages.

Between those two games, however, Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez will make a Bay Area homecoming trip Monday night to play in Oakland's Network Associates Coliseum, a stadium where loud, passionate fans -- check that -- where nasty, vile, cursing castaways from Hell itself create an atmosphere visiting teams quickly learn to dread.

"It's crazy," Gonzalez said with a chuckle. "We're going from some of the most polite fans I've ever seen in my life in Green Bay -- where their idea of talking trash is, 'Hey, we're gonna get you, Tony!' -- to a place where they cuss out my mom!"

But at least Mom stayed dry.

On one of Gonzalez's first trips to Oakland, his stepfather made the mistake of wearing Tony's red No. 88 Chiefs jersey. Despite the fact that Gonzalez was a local hero after starring in football and basketball at Cal -- just a couple of BART stops north of Oakland in Berkeley -- the senior Gonzalez got a rude reception that hit its low point in a stadium men's room.

A Raiders fan, taking umbrage at seeing the Chiefs apparel, redirected his aim and -- how do we say this politely? -- proceeded to soil the elder Gonzalez.

"People started to gather round and corner him, and they'd have probably beat him up," Gonzalez said of his embattled stepfather. "He was getting ready to throw down when some guy stepped in and said, 'It's all right, it's Tony's dad, leave him alone,' and got him out of there.

"There's just no class there, but I love it. You see all these people in makeup talking all their crap. It makes it all that much better when you beat 'em up."

Mind you, the Chiefs haven't done that in their previous three trips to Oakland. But in Gonzalez's first three years in Kansas City, the Chiefs owned the Raiders in Oakland. The highlight of that stretch was 1997, Gonzalez's rookie season, when Elvis Grbac hit Andre Rison with a 32-yard TD bomb with three seconds remaining to give KC a 28-27 Monday night win that jump-started the Chiefs' 13-3 playoff season.

The winning touchdown happened right in front of The Black Hole -- the end zone section that is home to the Raiders' nastiest fans.

"I still remember the beer, batteries, quarters and empty beer cans that came flying out of the stands that night," Gonzalez said. "I could have made some serious money out there that night!"

His favorite Oakland Coliseum memory, however, did not involve a young fanatic in a Halloween costume.

"There was this old lady in a wheelchair sitting in the front row," Gonzalez said. "She must have been 80; she could barely lift her head. But as we go by her, she slowly brings her hand up and flips us the bird!"