The Raiders are expected to part ways with Pete Carroll after Sunday’s season finale against the Chiefs and for the second consecutive year there will be a head coaching search in Las Vegas.
Carroll was not the Raiders first choice a year ago, and according to league insider Tony Pauline, GM John Spytek didn’t have a heavy hand in the decision to hire the 74-year-old head coach, either.
This year, no one seems to know who is running the Raiders, but the assumption is that every big decision will go through Tom Brady.
Brady will presumably accept input on the Raiders next head coach and CBS Sports insider Johnathan Jones would like to see the seven-time Super Bowl champion involve Sandra Douglass Morgan in the process.
“Armed with the No. 1 overall pick, the Raiders are expected to again be led by Brady in the interview process this month,” Jones wrote on Saturday.
“It was curious a year ago when the Raiders did not involve team president Sandra Douglass Morgan in much of the interview process. A recent trend in the league has been involving a diverse set of high-ranking executives in the process to make a sound organizational decision. Perhaps the team could benefit from having her voice — or even her ear — be one input in the process of finding the new leader of the team.”
Douglass Morgan is the current team president of the Raiders and has an extensive professional resume over the last 20 years – albeit nothing involved in the personnel side of football operations.
From the team website, here is Douglass Morgan’s resume going back to her start as an attorney…
“Sandra Douglass Morgan was named President of the Las Vegas Raiders by Owner Mark Davis in July of 2022. She has more than two decades of leadership experience in the sports, gaming, legal and corporate sectors, and has served as a chief regulator, director, attorney, and advisor to integrated resorts, casinos, and telecommunications companies. Having an adept understanding of the community as a native Las Vegan, Sandra is incredibly proud to lead the Silver and Black in her hometown.
Prior to her joining the Raiders, Sandra served as Chairwoman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. As the chief regulator for Nevada’s dominant billion-dollar gaming industry, Sandra led the passage and implementation of cashless wagering regulations, ensured that gaming licensees adopted policies prohibiting discrimination and harassment, and led a team of 400 employees in five cities across the state of Nevada. Sandra also served as a Commissioner on the Nevada State Athletic Commission and was the first Black City Attorney in the State of Nevada when she was the chief legal officer for the City of North Las Vegas, where she served from 2008 to 2016.
Sandra was previously with Covington & Burling, LLP and served as an advisor to the State of Nevada’s COVID-19 task force charged with finding solutions for access to personal protection equipment, virtual education options, and expanding testing capabilities so that the state could reopen its doors to tens of millions of visitors from across the globe.
Widely recognized for her commitment to Nevada businesses, education, and support for local causes, she is the recipient of the UNLV Boyd School of Law’s Distinguished Service Alumni Award and the Corporate to Community Connector award from the National Urban League Young Professionals.
She was honored to be included in the EBONY 2022 Power 100 List, the most influential “Women in Business and Politics,” receiving an award from the Urban Chamber of Commerce in 2015 along with the Ladies of Distinction Award in 2013 from Olive Crest, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting abused and neglected children. In 2012, Sandra was named Attorney of the Year by the Las Vegas Chapter of the National Bar Association which recognized her commitment to serving the local community, especially communities of color.
Sandra has served on a variety of nonprofit boards and was most recently the Vice Chair of the Super Bowl LVIII Host Committee. Additionally, Sandra serves on the Board of Directors of Allegiant Travel Company and Fidelity National Financial, Inc., and is on the Board of Trustees for the UNLV Foundation. She is also a member of the State Bar of Nevada and the District of Columbia Bar.
Sandra graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno with a degree in Political Science and holds a Juris Doctor from the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She resides in Las Vegas with her husband Don and their two children.”
Or how about this, we let the GM hire the head coach
With her involved let her learn and have a say too bloody Brady get one?do all minority owners?
Yes, the GM should lead the Coaching search. Ms. Morgan should focus on getting Raiders fans in the stands. I don’t the answer, but her background seems unique to the situation.
They come if you win. Most fans, including us, are only gonna show up if the team wins.
I can’t blame Raider fans for selling their season tickets. Most want to sell their tickets to other Raider fans but when the other team is good they’ll pay
Show me a factual statement that says Brady has so much say in all the decisions. I’ve seen nothing but assumptions by some hack writers and then more hacks piling on with what “has been reported that …”
I’ve only seen actual quotes from Mark Davis saying that Brady’s experience will be tapped to get his opinion when looking at QBs. Everyone else just assumes that because he had a lot of success playing on some heavily stacked teams throughout his career that this somehow qualifies him to run a football franchise.
New flash: It doesn’t
Can we please just let Spytek do the job that he was hired to do without any owner interference?
Mark has stated he wants Brady to have more say. Mike Silver& Mike Florio are Richard’s but they’re connected. He admitted Darnold was removed from consideration & Brady needs to either commit to being a decision maker or backing off.
It’s more than obvious that Brady wanted AP/Telesco gone & his decisions blew up in his face then now he’s trying to plant seeds that he isn’t involved.
Again, Spytek needs to be given the chance to do his job
The only things I’ve seen reported as said by Mark is that Brady’s role is subtle and is more focused on building the infrastructure and culture. I’ve seen nothing reported about Brady actually being involved in any of the key decisions. The strongest wording I’ve seen is that he consulted on them. That implies he had opinions but not any decision making power.
Agreed. Carroll had a hand in OC Chip Kelly and STC Tom McMahan hiring (firing) , Geno Smith acquisition (interception machine), and nepotism hiring of O-line coach Son who produced the worse O-line in Raider history sitting much needed help of rookies. He should have been fired first.
John Spytek isn’t immuned since he had a role in those hires, and hiring Pete Carrol, and his biggest free agent signing for an already terrible o-line was the worse ranked Guard in 2024 Kava.
Spytek could not have had much, if any, say in hiring Carroll. As Mark tends to do, he hires the HC first and then gets a GM to work with them. Both Carroll and Spytek were announced a day apart.
This model is proven time and again to not work. Successful teams hire a competent GM, who then owns selecting the HC and staff that fit his personnel vision.
Hopefully, this time around Mark (and Brady) stays 100 miles away from the coaching selection and let’s Spytek do his job.
Leave her ,and Brady out of it find a good coach from the shanahan tree! Oh yeah and draft Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick!