Maxx Crosby surprised a lot of fans when he threatened a trade request if Antonio Pierce wasn’t retained as head coach of the Raiders.
Some suggested that too much was made of his “support” for Pierce, and The Athletic‘s Vic Tafur implied that Crosby already knew Pierce was getting the job when he made the demand.
But according to Crosby, he was serious about what he said, and he had reason to believe the Raiders might be considering a direction that didn’t involve Pierce getting the job.
“I mean, that’s sort of what it looked like for the outside world,” Crosby told Austin Boyd of Heavy Sports.
“There are some things I can’t necessarily get into, but there are a lot more details that’s between myself and everybody involved,” Crosby continued. “It is what it is. I still stand on what I said. I was very, very passionate about that. I’ve been here for five years, going on six now. And I’ve earned the right to have an opinion and share how I feel. I put in the work every single day. To this day, I’m in the building more than anybody. I do it every day, I put my body on the line for this team and this organization. So you know, there are certain things going on behind the scenes. I won’t get into it. It is what it is. But we move forward. Me and Mark [Davis] are great, everybody’s great. We’re just here to win, and that’s all that matters.”
Generally, when a team makes a hire, the public relations message is that they “got their guy” or “got their top choice for the job”, and that was the message Mark Davis and several beat writers covering the team conveyed in the days after Pierce was hired.
The reality is that there was a long process to Pierce’s hiring and a lot of the details to that process will never be made public.
Somewhere in the owner’s process of determining the next head coach, Crosby felt the need to be more aggressive in his support of Pierce, and it’s safe to assume that Davis and his advisors got the message.
twitter: @raidersbeat
Crosby is the heartbeat of this team. Without him that mcclown character would probably still be the head coach. All in all, Crosby made davis smarten up.
I think it was a good move keeping Antonio Pierce but I hope Max and the other people that wanted him are willing to take the criticism if this was a mistake in the future Mark Davis listen to them now they have to take responsibility if it doesn’t work I hope it works I like the guy he’s doing all the right things right now getting help
I like Crosby, I like his aggressive play, his toughness and his work ethic. But I’m really not liking his ‘threat ‘. If he’s really dedicated to the Raiders , the Shield and the fans, then he should stay no matter who the coach is. He’s says it’s only about winning, which is a good thing, but if Antonio Pierce doesn’t ever win a Super Bowl, is he going to leave? There are no guarantees. I give Crosby 2 years with AP. If no playoffs by then, he’s off to Kansas City where he knows he can win. Now where is his support for Pierce???? Just sayin’…