Raiders’ Antonio Pierce Under Fire for Patrick Mahomes Comments
Getty Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes.
The last team to beat the Kansas City Chiefs before their Super Bowl run last season was the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 16. That win likely played a huge role in Antonio Pierce getting the head coaching job after the season.
However, it hasn’t taken long for Pierce to poke that bear that his Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. He recently made some news with his comments about how the Raiders are going to treat the quarterback going forward.
“We’ve got the Jordan rules and what I’m calling, from now on as long as I’m here, the Patrick Mahomes rules,” Pierce said on the February 16 episode of “The Rush with Maxx Crosby.” “So, you remember when Jordan was going through it with the Pistons, all those guys in the ’80s; before he became Michael Jordan, Air Jordan, the Pistons used to whup his a**. Any time he came to the hole? Elbows, feeling him, love taps. We touched him. We’re in the head, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, I’m touching you. So, I showed those guys Jordan getting his a** whupped.”
Pierce also spoke about how the Chiefs have dominated the division and it all starts with Mahomes.
“We’ve got to win the division first. We’ve got to knock off the team in red. They’ve dominated for [eight] years. We’ve got to knock off the head of the snake: 15. We’ve got to do that first,” he said.
These comments aren’t surprising considering Mahomes has had the AFC West on lockdown since he entered the NFL. However, some seem to have a problem with what Pierce is saying.
Insider Suggests Antonio Pierce Could Face Discipline
Antonio Pierce’s comments come off as normal coach speak but Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk seems to believe that the NFL might not be OK with what the coach said. While Florio said the NFL refused to comment on what Pierce said, he thinks the Raiders could face some form of backlash.
“That’s a common P.R. approach when an organization doesn’t want to draw extra attention to something that currently hasn’t gotten much of it,” Florio wrote in a February 20 column. “If the league had no problem with Pierce’s words, saying so likewise would be no problem. If, as we suspect, the league frowns on talking about banging around one of the most popular players in sports and ‘knocking off the head of the snake,’ the NFL won’t want to provide a sound bite that will ricochet around the Internet during a fairly slow week.
“It’s safe to assume the Raiders will hear from the league office, now or as the next Raiders-Chiefs game approaches or both. The message will be simple and clear. If any effort to apply extra physicality to Mahomes is detected, flags will be thrown, fined will be levied, and suspensions will be imposed.”
It’s difficult to imagine that Pierce was being literal when he spoke about knocking “off the head of the snake” but Mahomes is the face of the NFL and the coach may need to choose his words more carefully.
Las Vegas Raiders Still Haven’t Caught the Kansas City Chiefs
The Raiders did beat the Chiefs on Christmas Day last season but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re 2-10 in their last 12 games against the team. Antonio Pierce is very aware of how important it is to beat the Chiefs at a consistent rate but that’s easier said than done.
The Raiders aren’t going to be able to win the division unless they can close the gap at quarterback. Until they do that, the Chiefs are likely to keep winning the AFC West.
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