Clifford Branch is a symbol of speed.

The banner that hung in the stadiums the Raiders called home in the 1970s and ’80s said as much.

“SPEED KILLS #21”

What Branch also could be a symbol of is player development. In the history of the game, there is not a better example of a player who went from raw to refined.

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He began as a stone-handed rookie wide receiver, a proverbial “track guy.” He became a three-time All-Pro whom Raiders owner Al Davis told NFL writer Rick Gosselin was “one of our greatest players — maybe our greatest, certainly our most valuable.”

Branch became more than that. He came to be the model receiver for Davis and the Raiders — though they never found another like him. He became the key to an offense than spanned two eras of Raiders football. And he will be a Hall of Famer, finally, with his posthumous induction on Aug. 6.

No one who saw him in 1972 could have predicted it.

At Colorado, he merely was a return specialist. In two years there, he had only 36 catches. But his speed gave him extraordinary possibilities. Branch scored eight return touchdowns. And in the 1972 NCAA championship track meet, he ran a 10.0 in the 100 meters. For context, consider former Cowboys wide receiver Bob Hayes, called the “world’s fastest human” in his day, won a gold medal at the 1964 Olympics with a time of 10.06 seconds.

The Raiders, always obsessed with speed, took a flyer on Branch in the fourth round of the 1972 draft with the modest hope that he could contribute on special teams. Branch qualified for the Olympics in Munich that year but chose to go to training camp instead in part because he was drawn to the team nature of football.

But in camp, Branch was overmatched. He struggled to catch, especially in traffic. Despite his skill, he couldn’t get on the field in front of fellow rookie Mike Siani. After the season, receivers coach Dick Wood told the other coaches and scouts that Branch had failed to catch 15 catchable passes, according to former Raiders front office man Ron Wolf. That’s saying something because he had only three receptions.

In his second season, Branch was only marginally better with 19 catches for 290 yards. But the Raiders didn’t give up on him.

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“Back then, you had time to develop players, and Cliff needed time,” longtime Raiders scout Jon Kingdon said.

Fred Biletnikoff, already an established Pro Bowler, worked extensively with Branch. Every day after practice, he and Branch caught up to 300 passes thrown from different angles.

“Being a receiver, I had to learn from him,” Branch told SBNation in 2011. “Basically, I was his shadow. I had to mimic him because he was my teacher.”

Branch called Biletnkoff “father.” Others called them “the B-Boys.”

Branch also worked the speed bag and played ping-pong to help his hand-eye coordination. He squeezed putty for finger strength. But it wasn’t just his hands that were the problem.

“He ran so fast, his head bobbed when he ran, so he was always looking through bobbing eyes,” Raiders coach John Madden said. “He learned to keep his head straight from Biletnikoff.”

Branch eventually understood how to make his speed work for him on the football field as it had on the track.

“The difference between being a sprinter and a wide receiver is learning to control your speed when you have to make a cut in running a pattern,” he told the New York Times in 1974.

Over time, the coaching staff, which included assistant Tom Flores, decided to play exclusively to Branch’s strengths.

“He was not asked to run-ins anymore,” Wolf said. “It was all hooks, outs and ups. And that’s when he really started catching the ball.”

Madden explained it this way: “He wasn’t one-dimensional, but to run him on a short pass would be stupid, I thought.”

In his third season, Branch led the league in receiving yards and touchdown catches and was named first-team All-Pro. That was the start of a seven-year stretch in which Branch had 6,047 receiving yards — more than any player in the NFL. Among those he outproduced during that period were Harold Carmichael, Charlie Joiner, Steve Largent, Drew Pearson, John Stallworth and Lynn Swann, all of whom preceded him into the Hall of Fame.

Cliff Branch has been elected to the HOF Class of 2022.#PFHOF22 | @Raiders

— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) February 11, 2022

The over-the-shoulder catch became one of Branch’s signature plays. It is considered one of the most challenging receptions to make, but he and quarterback Ken Stabler often executed it to perfection.

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His development was a testament to Davis, who made an organizational commitment to Branch. It also reflected well on Madden, Flores and Biletnikoff, who molded him. And Branch also deserves credit because his devotion and persistence were central to all he achieved.

Branch was portrayed as a finesse receiver, as most speed receivers are. But, interestingly, he had his most significant impact when defenders could harass receivers all over the field before the “Mel Blount rule” was adopted in 1978. The rule disallowed defenders from jostling receivers after 5 yards and was intended to help players like Branch.

But the ride got a little rough for Branch in the late 1970s. Discord was evident between Branch and Stabler. It came to a head in 1979, when Flores replaced Madden as head coach and altered the offense, playing more two-tight-end sets to take advantage of the abilities of Dave Casper and Raymond Chester. After the first five games, Branch had only 13 catches when he told reporters, “I know now I’m not going to be the primary receiver. I’m just going to have to get used to being wasted a little bit this season.”

Branch went into a funk about how he was being used, and Flores became vexed with how Branch was dealing with it. Branch missed a team flight and sat out practices with a mysterious illness, leading to an eventual benching. As the Raiders prepared to play the Saints in December, there were rumblings about Branch becoming a former Raider.

In that game, Branch helped the Raiders score 28 unanswered points in a comeback win with seven catches for 126 yards, including two touchdowns. “Maybe this will get me out of the doghouse,” he said after. It did, as he finished the season strong.

The following March, the Raiders traded Stabler to the Oilers for Dan Pastorini. But early in the 1980 season, Pastorini broke his leg and the Raiders turned to Jim Plunkett, a 49ers castoff. Plunkett led the Raiders to the Super Bowl, where he threw two touchdown passes to Branch in a victory over the Eagles.

That team was one of three Super Bowl winners Branch played on over eight seasons. He won another with Flores and Plunkett, and he won a previous one with Madden and Stabler. In 22 postseason games, Branch had 73 catches for 1,289 yards and five touchdowns and held the records for postseason catches and receiving yards until Jerry Rice broke them.

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So Branch’s two defining qualities were he produced in the clutch and he made big plays.

Branch scored 21 touchdowns of 40 yards or longer. The longest couldn’t be any longer, 99 yards. It happened in 1983 against Washington, with coverage by cornerback Vernon Dean. Branch caught the ball at the Washington 35 and ran 64 yards after the catch. Two things were remarkable about the play. The first: Branch was 35 years old at the time, well past the age when he should have been his fastest. The second: he pulled a hamstring on the play.

There was only one Cliff Branch. And now his legacy will live on forever in Canton.

For more highlights visit

— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) February 11, 2022

“He got behind everybody,” Plunkett told Raiders.com. “I got him the ball in stride, and then another 10 steps or so he pulled his hamstring. Then here’s a cornerback trying to catch him. Cliff Branch was not about to be denied that end zone.”

Branch was a Raider for life and maintained a presence with the team until his final days. Al Davis’ son and successor Mark Davis, who will present Branch for induction, has called Branch his best friend. They once lived together. When Branch died unexpectedly of natural causes in August of 2019 at age 71, many Raiders, including quarterback Derek Carr, wore his jersey No. 21 to practice.

For decades, the Raiders tried to find the next Clifford Branch, acquiring a collection of race-winners that included Ron Brown, Jacoby Ford, Willie Gault, Sam Graddy, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Rocket Ismail, James Jett and Alexander Wright. When the team selected wide receiver Henry Ruggs with the 12th pick in the 2020 draft, Mark Davis invoked Branch’s name.

Kingdon believed Branch’s success might have led to a mindset that the Raiders could make almost any fast guy a football player.

“But in some ways, Cliff was an exception,” he said. “Sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn’t.”

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In Branch’s later years, Bay area NFL writer Frank Cooney asked Branch which modern player reminded him of himself.

“Tyreek Hill,” Branch said. “I’d be like him. I’d get 1,000 yards easily. With the rules they have now, it would be like stealing candy.”

Like Branch, Hill isn’t physically imposing. Branch was 5-foot-11, 170 pounds. Hill is 5-10, 185. And like Branch, Hill can take the top off the defense or catch and run.

Both compromised defenses before ever taking a step. Madden said when Branch was on the field, it was like the other 10 players on the Raiders offense had only nine men trying to stop them.

“When you were in front of him, there was fear there,” former 49ers defensive back Ronnie Lott said. “He told me, ‘You are not going to cover me.’ And he was right. He earned my respect and fear.”

Former Seahawks safety Ken Easley respected Branch so much that he lined up with a 13-yard cushion.

“And by the time he took two steps, I was turning to go deep,” he said. “You had to fear his speed or you would lose.”

In addition to changing games, he also changed the game, according to Wolf, making it more vertical.

“They want to give credit to a lot of people,” Wolf said. “Bob Hayes wasn’t as good as Cliff Branch. I think Cliff Branch could probably outrun Hayes.”

Hayes, however, beat Branch to the Hall of Fame. Making it to Canton was one of the only things Branch did slowly.

As a modern-era candidate, he was a semifinalist twice, in 2004 and 2010. He was a finalist in the senior pool once, in 2020, before being elected in 2022, in his 32nd year of eligibility.

His Hall of Fame case, like his playing career, was a matter of development.

(Top photo: George Rose / Getty Images)