Antonio Pierce spent his nine-year NFL career playing on the East Coast for Washington and the New York Giants from 2001 to ’09.
However, when the Raiders named Pierce as the interim head coach early Wednesday morning after Las Vegas owner Mark Davis fired head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler, it was move that made total sense for the team’s linebackers coach.
Pierce, a Long Beach, Calif., native, grew up around the Raiders. As Pierce prepares to make his head coaching debut against the Giants—his former team—on Sunday, the Super Bowl XLII winner told reporters on Wednesday that he feels at home with the franchise.
“I was born a Raider,” Pierce said, per NFL Network’s Bridget Condon. “I was born with the Raiders rolling in the Coliseum in LA. I was rolling with NWA, talking straight out of Compton, rocking Raider hats. When an opportunity came to work with Josh and Pat Graham and Dave, I jumped on it. That's what set me up for this. I was born this way.”
After retiring from the NFL as a player in ’10, the former middle linebacker joined the coaching ranks in ’14 as the head coach at Long Beach Poly High School for three years as well as spending five years in multiple capacities on the collegiate level at Arizona State under Herm Edwards. Pierce joined McDaniels’s staff in the ’22 campaign.
As he makes the transition to new role, Davis told reporters he was confident in Pierce to lead the franchise in this moment.
“After talking to him I felt he was right guy at the right time,” Davis said, per Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Someone who can lead, create and have the respect of the team.”
The Raiders (3–5) will hosts the Giants on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET.
