MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Raiders, Broncos will resume nasty rivalry tonight in Denver

The game is being billed as The Nastiest Show on Turf.
DENVER (AP) -- Arms will get stepped on, heads slapped and a few punches might get thrown. Hits will be late, questionable and possibly below the belt. Insults will be traded after almost every snap.
Add in eye-gouging and a little biting, and the networks might have to scroll a violence disclaimer across the screen. Throw in a microphone and some smackdown between quarters, and the WWE might want it for pay-per-view.
Be prepared. The Nastiest Show on Turf resumes tonight when the Raiders meet the Broncos.
"It doesn't matter if it was played on Tuesday, it's going to be a dogfight. It always is," Broncos receiver Rod Smith said.
Rivalries need antagonists and this one certainly has not gone lacking.
Heading the list
Oakland's noted nasties include the likes of John Matuzak, the headhunting duo of Jack Tatum and George Atkinson, and Ted Hendricks, who didn't earn the nickname "Mad Stork" just because he's tall.
The Broncos have rarely had the renegade types, but there have been players like Steve Atwater and Dennis Smith, who hit hard enough to make receivers forget their mother's name. Defensive lineman Lyle Alzado was as nasty as they come, but he wore silver and black for the final years of his career.
Then there's linebacker Bill Romanowski.
He spent six seasons on the Broncos' side of the rivalry before jumping the fence to the Raiders before last season. Romanowski is so bad it has not mattered which side he's on. He's hated either way -- even by teammates.
"You loved that he worked hard, you loved that he was always punctual, he always did the things it takes to get him ready to play football," said Denver's Shannon Sharpe, who played four seasons with Romo. "But it's the extra stuff that, even when you're his teammate, you're like, 'Why are you doing that?' I think that was the biggest problem I had with him."
Romanowski is the meanest
During his 16-year career, which includes stops in San Francisco and Philadelphia, Romanowski has used head slaps, face mask tugs or an extra shove at the end of a play to set an opponent off.
Saliva is also a part of Romanowski's arsenal: television cameras caught him spitting in the face of San Francisco receiver J.J. Stokes during a game in 1998.
A history like that has the Broncos wondering whether their former teammate will target quarterback Jake Plummer, who's nursing a sore throwing shoulder.
"Your job on defense is to get to the quarterback any way you can and hit him as hard as you can," Romanowski said. "To think you're going to change your game plan or do anything different because someone has a bad shoulder, a concussion or bad this or bad that, you really can't do that."
But the Broncos are still wary. They know Romanowski has not gotten any softer as he gets older.