The more that has come out about the Thursday meeting held just days before Josh McDaniels was fired as Las Vegas Raiders head coach, the more it paints a picture of a team and head coach that was disconnected.
But now an exchange between McDaniels and the man who would replace him, Antonio Pierce, is adding another layer to that airing-of-the-grievances session.
Fox NFL insider Jay Glazer reported on Sunday afternoon that McDaniels took exception to a comment made by Pierce during that meeting.
Pierce had gotten up to speak on behalf of McDaniels and the coaching staff when he started talking about the need for the Raiders to have their own culture.
He used his experience as a member of the Giants the season they won the Super Bowl in 2007-08 as an example.
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“He brought up the old Giants team that beat the [New England Patriots], Josh McDaniels’ team, in the Super Bowl in the 2007 season,” Glazer 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.”
The comments, according to Glazer, did not sit well with the then-head coach and he took Pierce aside to address them.
“Josh McDaniels then goes over to him and says, ‘don’t ever talk about the Patriots like that,’” Glazer continued. “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.’”
Glazer did indicate that Pierce has a shot to win the coaching job in Sin City.
Davis replaced McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler on Halloween night.
That Thursday meeting continues to play an important part of the story of how Davis reached the decision to finally make a change.
Earlier on Sunday, it had been reported that McDaniels did not take the comments made in the meeting well and had seemed to check out at practice hours later.
The Raiders then gave a listless effort against the Detroit Lions on “Monday Night Football,” which seemed to be the final straw for team ownership.