Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce is passionate about keeping the culture right in the locker room

The Las Vegas Raiders have had a complete culture shift since the beginning of 2023. Now, they are what we all remember of the Raiders—that Raider way, with players who do not care about how the opponent, the media, or anyone else feels. They just want to win football games.

It was obvious that Josh McDaniels, as head coach, kind of threw that all off. There was no more culture, the locker room was broken, and everyone was defeated. But times have changed. As soon as Antonio Pierce took over, everything was fixed in the locker room.

But, when you build a culture like that, it's easy to bring people in and tear that down. The Raiders have brought in a few people in free agency, and if those people don't fit the culture, then none of the moves matter. Everyone has to be bought in, and Antonio Pierce makes sure they are before they walk through any doors with the shield on them.

"I'm the guardian at the gate, not letting any evil come through that building, not happening. Because that's important man, like what we're able to do at the end of the season, what we're doing right now - I know you guys are not in the building, it looks different. It looks different, I can tell you that. The players are protective of it. They want to know what coach you're bringing in," Pierce said. 

"If you're bringing in somebody from ops or media or wherever, like we're checking badges, we're checking resumes, we're checking how you are. That's important to us. I said it probably several times now, being a Raider is different. Being a Raider with me as a head coach is going to be really different, and we want that fit to be perfect."