Antonio Pierce and the Las Vegas Raiders play in the same AFC West division as Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, so Pierce understands he has a tough task at hand as the Raiders’ new head coach.
Pierce has brought a tough, hard-nosed mentality to Las Vegas since taking over midway through this past season, and it resulted in the Raiders playing a physical brand of football. That style of play guided Las Vegas to a win over the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Christmas.
Apparently, Pierce wants to double down on that strategy, so much so that he made what one might consider a rather frightening statement concerning how he plans to deal with Mahomes in 2024.
During an appearance on Maxx Crosby’s “The Rush” podcast, Pierce discussed facing Mahomes and Co. and pulled no punches.
“We have got to knock off the head of the snake. Fifteen,” Pierce said, referring to Mahomes’ jersey number (via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk).
Now, this statement can be taken a couple of different ways.
It’s entirely possible that Pierce was merely saying that the Raiders need to stop the Chiefs at the point of attack, which would consist of shutting Mahomes down.
But then there’s another angle which potentially involves Las Vegas physically targeting Mahomes to try and injure him.
No one should jump to conclusions here. Pierce was simply speaking off the cuff, and chances are, he did not mean that he wanted his team to give Mahomes a head injury.
But, given some incidents in the NFL in the past (such as Bountygate with former New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams back in 2012), some are questioning Pierce’s motives.
All things considered, we should all give Pierce the benefit of the doubt. He was speaking on a podcast of one of his players and the mood was loose. But it may certainly be something to keep an eye on moving forward, and given the status of Patrick Mahomes, it would not be the least bit surprising if Antonio Pierce’s remark caught the league’s attention.
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