Getty Cam Newton with Josh McDaniels.
Momentum is starting to build for Antonio Pierce to become the full-time Las Vegas Raiders head coach. He’s received endorsements from current players like Maxx Crosby and team legends like Charles Woodson.
Pierce is the polar opposite of the coach he replaced Josh McDaniels. The former is more of a motivator while the latter is more cerebral. However, even one of the McDaniels’ former players on the New England Patriots thinks Pierce is a better fit in Las Vegas. Former MVP quarterback Cam Newton gave a strong endorsement for Pierce.
“The Raiders kind of lineage has always been like gritty,” Newton said on the January 1oth episode of the “4th&1” podcast. “You bring in a preppy motherf***er in there if you want to. … So Antonio, by all means, bro, you deserve to be the head coach officially. And I think the fans want that s*** too.”
Newton spent a year with McDaniels so he knows the coach well. Considering the fact that McDaniels was fired before finishing his second season in Las Vegas, there’s merit to the idea that he simply wasn’t a fit with the Raiders style. Pierce grew up in Los Angeles as a Raiders fan while the team was still in Southern California so he knows the culture well. Fans and players have responded well to Pierce.
Interesting piece here from @CameronNewton’s pod @4thand1show on Antonio Pierce.
🎥: @TheRaiderRoom #AP2LV
Ice Cube Endorses Antonio Pierce
The Raiders have yet to make a decision on a head coach but the noise from the players and the fan base is only getting louder. Famous rapper and Raiders fan Ice Cube has now endorsed Antonio Pierce and even said he’d go to the man in charge to try and help the coach get the job.
“You need someone that the players will listen to and play for,” Ice Cube said on the January 15 episode of the “Pat McAfee Show.” “The Raiders have that in AP. The Raiders need to hire Antonio Pierce. I’ll call up Mark Davis to try to convince him, as President of the Raider Nation, I approve of this message.”
Mark Davis isn’t likely to manage his team based on what Ice Cube wants but what the rapper is saying falls in line with how many fans feel. Fans didn’t like Josh McDaniels and even confronted the owner about firing him before he was let go. Hiring Pierce would help Davis mend fences with some of the fan base.
Will Antonio Pierce Get the HC Job?
No candidates have emerged as realistic candidates for the Raiders head coach job yet outside of Antonio Pierce so his odds of keeping the job are only increasing. Mark Davis is known to like hiring big names but that hasn’t gotten him far in the past.
Though Pierce isn’t a big name as a head coach now, he has the potential to be. There’s a certain amount of risk with hiring him considering he has just two years of experience coaching in the NFL but sometimes a risk can pay off. It still remains to be seen what Davis will do but it’s looking more and more like the Raiders’ head coaching job is Pierce’s to lose.