Sports
Las Vegas Raiders Coach Antonio Pierce Is Trying to Bring Back Glory to Raider Nation

COSTA MESA, Calif. – For someone who supposedly finds himself in such a difficult situation, Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce definitely doesn’t seem burdened.
The Raiders have had a winning record in only two of the last 21 seasons, and their last postseason victory got here during former President George W. Bush’s first term. Given the franchise’s long-standing struggles, it seems the Raiders’ iconic motto needs an update: Just Win, Baby?
But if Pierce, who’s entering his first full season because the Raiders’ running back, is worried in regards to the team’s alleged major shortcomings, he has hidden it well.
As Pierce recently milled about monitoring training camp drills, he wore a broad smile. He was clearly energetic during transient meetings with assistant coaches and support staff between practice periods. And in his interactions with the ardent Raiders fans and reporters who cover the team, Pierce was an enticing ambassador for the franchise.
He’s not burying his head within the sand, Pierce said. He knows the Raiders are on a roll. It’s just that Pierce has shocked doubters throughout his playing profession, so he isn’t changing course now. Let others give attention to the Raiders’ apparent shortcomings. Pierce has a job to do. And make no mistake, he said, it’ll get done.
“My whole life (I’ve had) a back-to-the-wall mentality,” Pierce told Andscape. “I’ve always been told what I can’t do. And when you have the opportunity to go out and do it, and you’ve shown (before) that you can do it, why wouldn’t you believe you can do it again? And why wouldn’t you talk about doing it from now on?”
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Pierce is respected inside the Raiders organization for not mincing words but taking motion.
In November 2023, Pierce was in just his second yr because the team’s linebackers coach when owner Mark Davis tapped him as interim coach. In the midst of a significant organizational shakeup, Davis ousted then-coach Josh McDaniels, who had failed to connect with players as Las Vegas descended into 3-5 chaos.
The ineffective Daniels seemed stuck in his glory days as an assistant coach with the New England Patriots, which meant about as much to the Raiders because the brand of lightbulbs utilized in their headquarters in Henderson, Nevada. Pierce immediately set about rebuilding the bridges within the locker room, as is normal for him.
Throughout his NFL playing days with the Washington Redskins and New York Giants, the previous middle linebacker was an excellent teammate and leader, former NFL players said. Pierce emphasized labor, trust and responsibility, telling Raiders players and coaches that he would expect no less of himself than he demanded of them. For grown men bored with the mini-dictator approach, Pierce’s style was refreshing.
The change in management philosophy translated into improved results on the pitch.
The Raiders went 5-4 under Pierce. The victories included a 20-14 victory over the archrival Kansas City Chiefs in Kansas City on Christmas Day, which delighted Davis and played a task in rewarding Pierce with a multi-year contract that allowed him to stay on. Confident in himself as the proper man to lead the Raiders, Pierce proved it to Davis as well.
“It’s not always perfect. Sometimes things don’t go the way you think they’re going to, and some things are just out of your control,” Pierce said. “The only thing I could control was my effort. That’s something you’ll be able to do day-after-day.
“The good thing about it is that everyone sees the effort. They see what you expect of yourself and what (standard) you set for yourself. Our players, coaching staff and Raider Nation saw that and supported me to be a head coach in the future. Mr. Davis saw that, too.”
As star wide receiver Davante Adams said, from what players saw each day, Pierce had loads of upside.
“AP is the right coach for any team,” the three-time first-team All-Pro said. “He’s real. He’s understanding. He’s very realistic (about the difficulty of the game), but he also upholds and maintains the standard of play that he believes in and that we all believe in. It’s just very, very easy to follow a guy (who) understands the bigger picture and has the same mindset that we do as players. It’s easy to get behind that.”
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Born and raised in Southern California, Pierce, 45, fell in love with football and the Raiders as a baby. In 1982, the franchise moved from Oakland, California, where it was founded in 1960, to Los Angeles, where it played its home games at the large Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Although Pierce developed right into a standout linebacker and fullback at Paramount High in Paramount, California, he was not considered an elite college prospect. After two years at Mount San Antonio College, a community college in Walnut, California, Pierce transferred to the University of Arizona. Despite solid performances for the Wildcats, Pierce was not chosen within the 2001 NFL Draft.
In 2001, Washington signed Pierce as an undrafted rookie free agent. Undeterred by the way in which he arrived within the NFL, Pierce was determined to prove he was in the proper place.
By his fourth season, the determined Pierce had gone from a special teams player and little-used defensive linebacker to the team’s starting middle linebacker. He was rewarded for his perseverance when the Giants signed him as a free agent after the 2005 season.
Pierce finished his playing profession with the Giants by becoming a team captain, being named to the Pro Bowl and helping the Giants win Super Bowl XLII over favored New England, which was vying to change into the second undefeated team in league history. Before joining the Raiders, Pierce was an ESPN analyst and spent five seasons because the coach at Arizona State.
Including interim coaches, the Raiders have had 13 head coaches previously 21 seasons. For Pierce to enjoy longevity on the position, he needs to discover a way at quarterback. Fast. Sophomore Aidan O’Connell, who had some good moments as a rookie in Las Vegas last season, is competing with veteran Gardner Minshew II for the starting job.
The Raiders are, in a way, unlucky to play within the AFC West, which is run by the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs. Kansas City has won three Super Bowls in five seasons, becoming the NFL’s newest dynasty, and has won eight straight division titles.
Pierce is well aware of the Chiefs’ long list of accomplishments, but he won’t accept mediocrity, nor will he allow those under his command to accomplish that.
“You train and play this game to win the Lombardi (Super Bowl trophy). That’s it,” Pierce said. “So that’s what we attempt for.
“But more importantly, it’s something more for this organization, after not having the success we’ve been accustomed to over the last 25 years. It would be great to see, for me and for this team, something back for Raider Nation. To bring back the glory.”
To do this, the Raiders, like the remainder of the AFC, could have to face the Chiefs. Kansas City has appeared in six straight AFC Championship Games, winning 4.
Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, widely considered the league’s best player, has terrorized the Raiders in 12 profession games against them, throwing 30 touchdowns and only 4 interceptions. The Chiefs are 10-2 in those games. So Pierce got here up with “The Patrick Mahomes Rules.”
In short, Pierce’s strategy emphasizes using physicality against Mahomes (inside the principles, in fact), hoping to affect the three-time Super Bowl MVP’s psychology. The concept harkens back to “The Jordan Rules,” a successful scheme utilized by the Detroit Pistons within the late Nineteen Eighties to demoralize Chicago Bulls point guard Michael Jordan, then the sport’s best player, within the playoffs.
A coach calling on defensive players to go above and beyond in harassing the league’s most iconic quarterback is something that plays well within the locker room. But not a lot within the league office.
Of course, NFL referees will likely be especially vigilant in monitoring things as teams play this season. The Raiders correctly kept away from commenting on the topic.
Pierce, for his part, said he isn’t holding back on any of the actions he’s taken since becoming Raiders coach, “because at the end of the day, you’ve got to try something different. You’ve got to try to make the change you want. I want to win. I want to win for the coaches, the players, Mr. Davis … everybody in Raider Nation. If we do that, if we can have that success again, that’s what makes me happy.”
And in pursuit of happiness, Pierce will come to work day-after-day with a positive attitude, trying to prove the naysayers flawed. So far, it’s an approach that has served him well.
Sports
Jalen Hurts’s Super Bowl Lix Victory Study in immunity, perseverance

Star Black playmakers aren’t any longer an exception – they’re the rule. Throughout your complete football season, this series will discover the importance and influence of black QB from bottom -up to NFL.
New Orlean – in the weeks preceding the Sunday Super Bowl between Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, my challenge was to find out which essentially the most convincing plot: Kansas City, winning the three subsequent Super Bowl championships or watching the playmaker Eagles Jalen finally break through.
I sat down at Hurts, a young player who went back from a serious failure to check to often summer and infrequently critical response of Philadelphia fans. In the conversations of quarterback, they routinely take room for nearly every elite calling signal at NFL.
However, the whole lot he does is win, just like the Sunday explosion of the leaders 40-22. His 46-jard passing pass to Devonta Smith in the third quarter gave Philadelphi 34-0. Putting almost aside from three things Kansas City and provided painful championships, which were solidly his.
Hurts, Super Bowl Lix MVP, ran through 72 jardy and placing and accomplished 17 out of twenty-two passes out of 221 yards and two application. He became the fifth playmaker in the history of NFL with many appliances and a speeding application in Super Bowl, joining Ken Anderson, Brett Favre, Joe Montana and Patrick Mahomes.
But when Hurts tells anyone who’s to listen, he is just not a numerical guy. He wins the guy.
“I don’t play statistics,” he said after they led Philadelphia to the NFC championships. “I don’t play a game for numbers, no statistical approval from anyone else. Victory and success is defined by this particular person; All this is in relation to this person and what I define as a victory. And so my goal No. 1 is always to go out and win. Winning is the standard. “
Hurts was championship on Sunday in leading Philadelphia to the second Super Bowl championship.
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Nowy Orlean was a super stage for Hurts to win your first NFL championship.
The recent Orlean, devastated by Hurricane, made up and returned stronger than ever. Like the town, Hurts is a study of immunity and perseverance. This applies to each player who reached this stage, but Hurts experienced more public ups and downs than most elite players.
As a first-year student on the University of Alabama, Hurts led Crimson Tide to the 12-0 record in the 2016 regular season. Alabama reached the match for the national championship and lost to Clemson and the playmaker of Deshaun Watson. Alabama won the national championship a yr later, but Hurts didn’t lead the team. During the break of the national title game with Georgia leading 13-0, coach Alabama, Nick Saban, hurt in favor of the primary yr Tua Tavailoa, who led Alabama to victory 26-23 in Daming.
After Sunday’s win, Hurts said that every of those events continues to be a source of his motivation.
“I am the same child who came to the game in the national championships and lost, the same kid who was equipped, he had to transfer that I had to go through this unprecedented journey and this child always kept the most important and was always the most important and was always the most important and was always in accordance with his vision and what he saw, “said Hurts.
This super bowl championships belonged to Hurts.
“He was the second place of Deshaun Watson in the championships when he played incredibly,” said Quincy Avery playing guru. “He is the same guy whose team won these national championships, but he was not playing this match. I think that this dramatically changes what people think about Jalen, hurts as a quarterback. But this will not alleviate his advantage. “
Usually, the very best observations about wounds come from teammates or people like Avery who worked with the playmaker. Avery, who works with many playmakers of the very best quality, met with Hurts when he was 16 years old. He didn’t start working with wounds until he moved from Alabama to Oklahoma. They talked a couple of bench during a break in Alabama, but in the context of what hurts to do higher.
“He talked about how the coach (Saban) did not really talk to him about this or any of these things, but he said he didn’t need it,” Avery said. “He didn’t need this conversation because he knew he needed to do something higher to be on the pitch, so his only task was to attack it.
“I think there are so many people in this situation, if they fight and become a bench, they want to look at every person other than themselves. He turned to the inside, and the only thing he thought about was: “How can I improve in order that it would not occur to me?” “

Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Hurts didn’t approach being a bench in Philadelphia, although for an elite playmaker at the extent, he was criticized in the town of brotherly love. After the Sunday performance in the Hurts championship, he almost silenced his critics.
Impressive for everybody who knows that it hurts, it seems unaware of criticism.
“He is one of those guys who do not allow adversity to reach him,” said Eagles Mekhi Becton offensive liner. “He is one of those guys who water flows down his back, no matter what is happening. This is very inspiring, makes you want to go even harder because you know that he is not crazy or spoiled the situation. “
Hurts led Eagles to the Super Bowl Lvia against Kansas City in 2023 and the Eagles lost. Last season, Philadelphia began strongly, after which disappeared at the tip of the yr, and the critics appeared again. This yr there was a drama in the center of the season, when there have been reports of the strain between the injuries and the recipient of AJ Brown.
Hurts didn’t react, but they still turned in the dominant performances when the Eagles were rolling towards Play -ff. His teammates approached him. “I would say the whole year, just as people talked about him, like everything, everyone said that he couldn’t do it, he couldn’t do it. But (he) still does it – said Becton. “When you see the way it comes out and dominates in every game, we only need to do it.”
Hurts doesn’t have a flash playmaker Baltimore Ravens Lamar Jackson or playmaker Buffalo Bills Josh Allen, this yr’s MVP. But Avery said Hurts has one of the crucial unique features he saw in the elite playmaker.
“He is the best player in NFL in doing things that do not require talent,” said Avery. “This is due to hard work, preparing for gathering guys. Everything you can do, which does not require talent, mastered it. He is also a great talent. For me it makes him special. “
Hurts was on Sunday on Sunday. Running if needed, going with the indicating performance and possibly he does what he does best: lead.
“He is a thermostat,” Avery said. “Changes the temperature in the room. It makes everyone reach their level of perfection. I think that sometimes he can rub people in the wrong way, but the people who are rubbed in the wrong way do not want to be great as if he wanted to be great. “
On Sunday, Bants was great. He climbed to the highest of a steep mountain and may finally receive unlimited recognition, which is only for its reach.
This is just not enough for him.
Sports
Antonio Gates, Jared Allen, Eric Allen and Sterling Sharpe form the Pro Football Hall of Fame

Antonio Gates, Jared Allen, Eric Allen and Sterling Sharpe were voted for Pro Football Hall of Fame in the smallest induction class inside 20 years after changes in the rules out of season, which is to make it difficult to make the introduction.
Sharpe got as a candidate of seniors in a vote announced on Thursday evening at the NFL Honors and will join Shannon’s younger brother as the first siblings introduced to the room. Two -time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning failed this yr’s older brother Peyton in Canton, Ohio.
Shannon gave the message on to Sterling and will probably be together without end in the hall after the introduction ceremony on August 2.
“I don’t think it really happened,” said Sterling Sharpe. “This is one of those situations in which the closer is approaching the same colorful jacket he has, and standing in the same place that he has become and was able to find out about traveling, to get there, I think I think standing. But now it hasn’t hit home yet. “
While a small class is a change in comparison with previous years, when at the least seven people have been introduced in each of the previous 12 classes, it will not be unprecedented.
In the 2005 class there have been only 4 aspects and there have been 18 other years with three or 4 induced from the firstclass 17 in 1963.
“You appreciate it almost more,” said Jared Allen. “Nothing comes easily. When I found out that it was only four, it became more unique. The emphasis is on what it means to be Hall of Famer. We apparently fit it. For me it was a sigh with relief. “
The recent rules were established this yr after the pursuit of Hall of Famers to make the hall more exclusive, which led on to the smaller class. Candidates from modern times were voted from 15 to seven in the last stage, as a substitute of five lately.
49 voters could vote for five out of seven, and each reached 80% or ends in the top three entering the room. In the past years, five finalists have received a voice up or down, and all five got here to the last 17 years.

Candidates from the senior, trainers and colleagues category were then placed in a bunch by which voters selected three. Candidates also needed 80% support with the best finisher robotically, even when it fails.
A spokesman for Hall of Fame, Rich Desrosiers, said that no decision was made or to maintain this method in 2026, but said that one yr could possibly be too early to attract all conclusions.
Gates was elected in the second yr of qualification. He only played basketball in college, then transformed into one of the most vital ends of the NFL after the chargers appointed.
“The possibility of saying, he says about how (chargers) they believed in me,” Gates said. “I’m glad that everything paid off.”
He became All-PRO in its second season in 2004. He was again Pro in the next two seasons and had a 16-year profession in Chargers. Gates ended with 955 fishing to 11,841 yards and the NFL record for tight ends with 116 filming. It ranks seventh in the TD breakthrough.

Jared Allen was a four-time All-PRO, who ended his profession with 136 sacks, including the leading in League 22 in 2011 for Minnesota. He also led the league in sacks with 15 1/2 for Kansas City in 2007 and achieved two -digit numbers in seven seasons. His last game was a loss of Super Bowl for Karolina against Denver in the 2015 season.
Eric Allen performed for 14 seasons as the highest defender in the NFL and never had to maneuver in a protected place. Allen’s profession lasted in the game “Fog Bowl” in 1988, when he played in Philadelphia as a debutant in the game “Tuck Rule” in the 2001 season for Oakland in his last match.
Allen ended with 54 intercourse, including eight returned to the use. He was the first ALL-PRO team in 1989 and had two other seasons as a range of the second team.
He got here from 19 years of qualification.
“Life rarely plays as you like,” said Eric Allen. “There are always some curves and turns. But time always reveals the truth. … It’s been time before people see the complexity of my situation. “
Sharpe had a brief but productive profession for Green Bay Packers in 1988-94. His best season took place in 1992, when he became the sixth player who won the receiving a triple crown, setting the NFL record with 108 fishing on 1461 yards and 13 application.
He performed his own album with 112 fishing in 1993 and led the NFL with 18 seizures in the last season, 1994, before his neck injury shortened his profession.

Sharpe was three-time All-PRO and had 595 fishing on 8 134 yards and 65 tds. During the seven -year profession in the parties and fishing, he took only Jerry Rice.
Sharpe brothers will join the three Father-Syn tandems in the hall: Tim and Wellington Mara; Art Rooney Sr. and Dan Rooney; and ED and Steve Sabol.
Four other candidates from modern times who reached the last stage, but weren’t in the state of Willie Anderson, Torry Holt, Luke Kuechly and Adam Vinatieri. These 4 will robotically advance to the last 15 to vote next yr.
The other eight finalists who were cut before are Manning, Jahri Evans, Steve Smith Sr., Terrell Suggs, Fred Taylor, Reggie Wayne, Darren Woodson and Marshal Yanda.
Seniors who weren’t in a position to Maxa Bughan and Jim Tyrer, and Mike Holmgren weren’t a coach and Ralph Hay as a collaborator.
(Tagstranslate) @AP
Sports
The furious supporters of Donald Trump call for a boycott Super Bowl after the NFL rules “Black National Anthem” will be sung before the match

NFL doesn’t abandon the black national anthem before the Super Bowl, and its most conservative fans are in confusion. As a result, several football fanatics expressed plans to boycott the Gridiron duel between Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs on February 9.
The league appointed the contractor to sing “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” as part of the ceremony before the match from the time of the initiative of the social justice in 2020. It is anticipated that the response to tradition is connected with the news that President Donald Trump will be present.
Republican politician returned to the office on January 20 and implemented many executive orders restoring America with the withdrawal of programs of diversity, capital and integration, and performing mass efforts to deport.
The NFL was turned on by the Black National Anthem took place after civic anxieties stimulated by the clay of killing George Floyd in 2020 and the later kneeling movement led by the former playmaker San Francisco 49ers Colin Kapernick. It was first made in Super Bowl in 2021.
Angered person wrote“This year we will not watch the Super Bowl if they intend to play the Black National Hymn.” Another person noticed: “I will not watch Superbowl because of unrealized special treatment, enabling the recovery of another national anthem other than a banner with a star.”
@realdonaldtrump Please, don’t go to SB, where the NFL will play the Black National Hymn. He is bad and dividing. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/63dsg9dvjb
– lu (@ lullen francm) February 5, 2025
The third critic announced: “Let’s Annuj Culture Super Bowl like Bud Light. NFL and advertisers need indignation. Loyal viewers do not need a call to indignation. “
The repetitive argument of boycott is that America has one national anthem that represents all the things and that the second version consolidates the division. “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” was invented by the NAACP Black National Anthem in 1919 and wiped the soundtrack for civil rights.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” gained preaching as the national anthem of the Congress in 1931. The constructing of the call to operate to tune Super Bowl was counteracted by several others. Online commentary is: “Hey magician, your racism is (again) shown. You may want to put it on. ”
Abby Phillip, the host of CNN, is clearly nervous that NFL removes “final racism” from the final zone for Super Bowl.
Democrats lose their cultural war because culture is fed up with democrats.
Stop injecting all the things, America shouldn’t be interested. pic.twitter.com/8k9od1vu9c
– Paul A. Shaypula 🇺🇸 (@bubBlebathgirl) February 5, 2025
Second person he asked“Why do the Republicans hate diversity and inclusion?” The third response states: “Well, what do you say to omitted the national anthem of LOL, because it does not apply to everyone !!!!”
On Sunday, the winner of Grammy, Ledisi, will throw the hymn, and the native trombone Crescent City Shorty and Christian music artist Lauren Daigle will join the forces “America The Beautiful” before the great football night begins.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” will be performed by Jon Batiste Moments before Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, who’re fighting for the Vince Lombardi trophy during the television event at Caesars SuperDome. The expected break show is led by the hip-hop star of Kendrick Lamar.
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