Oakland

Blast from the Past: What Life Was Like When the Raiders Last Made the Playoffs

In case you missed it or are still digesting the astonishing reality, the Oakland Raiders are headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2002.

Yes, it's official, the "Silver and Black" are back. Being branded as the league laughing stock is no more. Consecutive years of losing skids are a thing of the past. "Raider Nation" fans will be cheering for something come January.

Sunday's 19-16 victory against the Chargers in San Diego, which just so happens to be the location of Oakland's last postseason appearance during Super Bowl XXXVII, put an end to a 14-year-long stretch of misery.

It's been just under 5,000 days since that last Raider playoff game. To put that mind-boggling number in perspective, here are the names, gadgets and moments that made headlines around this time more than a dozen year years ago.

Music Stars

Rapper Eminem's "Lose Yourself" was the top song at the end of the 2002 calendar year, according to Billboard. After topping the charts earlier in the year, Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" was still a fan-favorite during the year's latter months.

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Eminem and Chad Kroeger from Nickelback are pictured in 2002.

Hollywood Blockbusters

At the box office, "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" made its debut in December 2002 and, with it, the iconic "My precious!" line voiced by "Gollum" began to be repeated by movie-lovers around the world.

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Actors from "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" are pictured during the 2002 premiere of the blockbuster film.

Television Hits

Parked on the couch, people were just starting to get attached to the first season of "American Idol," which made its premiere in June.

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(L-R) Ryan Seacrest, Kelly Clarkson and Brian Dunkleman are pictured on stage during an "American Idol" show in 2002.

Attractive Gizmos

Popular cell phones back in the day consisted of, believe it or not, actual buttons and, by today's standards, miniscule screens.

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A Nokia cell phone from 2002 is pictured.

Trendy Toys

Move over "Barbie," these "Bratz" dolls were all the rage among young girls. 

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"Bratz" dolls pictured in 2002.

Aside from what was a "thing" 14 years ago, many of today's realities were not even a thought. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were barely an idea and Myspace, which seems like an ancient social media platform these days, hadn't even been released.

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