
The fallout continues from the Las Vegas Raiders cleaning house and firing head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Zeigler.
According to Jay Glazer of Fox Sports, during the team meeting where players were able to discuss their issues with McDaniels’ coaching, McDaniels asked linebackers coach Antonio Pierce to speak on his behalf. Pierce said the team needs to build it’s own culture and brought up the 2007 Giants team, whom Pierce was a team caption on, and said that that team believed they could win every game. He said the Raiders needed that mindset.
That 2007 Giants team is known for beating the undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, where McDaniels was the offensive coordinator. Pierce’s comments got positive responses from the players, but it was McDaniels, who took issue with it.
“Josh McDaniels then goes over to him and says, ‘Don’t ever talk about the Patriots like that,’” Glazer said. “And then you really saw how divided the building got. That got up to Mark Davis, and I think Davis looked at it ands said, ‘OK, I’m gonna choose the guy who believes we can win every single week.’”
Here’s the clip of Glazer explaining it all.
Following the Raiders’ Monday Night Football game loss to the Detroit Lions, team owner Mark Davis fired McDaniels and appointed Antonio Pierce as the interim coach.
Pierce’s first game as a head coach will ironically be against his former team – the New York Giants.