Retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady has repeatedly stated that a Super Bowl XLII loss to the New York Giants will haunt him for the rest of his life. And more than a decade later, members of that New England Patriots team are still feeling the effects.
Days before the Las Vegas Raiders decided to blow things up and fire general manager Dave Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels, a team meeting was called.
During the “airing of grievances” meeting, multiple Raiders players and captains unloaded on McDaniels.
Sensing he was losing the room completely, McDaniels called on a member of that Super Bowl XLII-winning Giants team to speak on behalf of himself and the coaches.
That person was Antonio Pierce, who gave a rousing speech about culture and attitude. He recalled his time with those 2007 Giants and said the Raiders needed to embody the same confident approach that Tom Coughlin-led team had.
Ultimately, Pierce said, these Raiders have to be those Giants.
That did not sit well with McDaniels, who immediately ripped into Pierce for disparaging the Patriots by bringing up that Super Bowl.
Inside scoopage of what went on behind the scenes that led the @raiders to fire head coach John McDaniels then.move onto Antonio Pierce as their new coach. #raiders @nflonfox pic.twitter.com/aLcymL3Gcy
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) November 5, 2023
“He brought up the old Giants team that beat the (Patriots), Josh McDaniels’ team, in the Super Bowl in the 2007 season,” Jay Glazer of FOX Sports reported. “He said, ‘no matter who we played, we thought we could beat them. We had a game plan where we could beat them. We had to believe that and that’s not here. We have to believe that at the Raiders, we can beat anybody.’ He finishes up that speech, everyone thinks they’re great except for Josh McDaniels.
“Josh McDaniels then goes over to him and says, ‘don’t ever talk about the Patriots like that.’ And then you really saw how divided that building got. That got up to Mark Davis and I think Mark Davis looked at it and went, ‘OK, I’m gonna choose the guy who believes that we can win every single week.'”
Petty much?
In the end, McDaniels took two L’s to the 2007 Giants. Once in Super Bowl XLII and then again last week.
Somewhat ironically, Pierce was named the Raiders interim head coach and in his NFL debut at that post, defeated the Giants, 30-6.
