Special teams is obviously the most overlooked aspect of football when looking from the outside in. Those who follow the game closely, though, know the value it has in each and every game.
When it comes to being on special teams at the professional level, one might think it would be tough for an NFL player to embrace such a role after having been more of a focal point in their college and high school days. Some special teams players like Las Vegas Raiders running backs Brandon Bolden and Ameer Abdullah even held more significant roles in their earlier years in the NFL and have now taken somewhat of a backseat.
What helps make the Raiders such a tight unit, though, is their all-around unselfishness, even on special teams.
"Listen, everybody's not going to be the highest-paid wide receiver or the starting center or the starting quarterback," said Raiders Interim Head Coach Antonio Pierce when he addressed the media Friday. "What's your role? Embrace your role, love your role.
"And we got about five or six players that -- they're just strictly special teams. Curtis Bolton's one of them. Brandon Bolden -- now he had a touchdown yesterday, but he's been there -- Ameer [Abdullah], same deal.
"Like, those guys have done an outstanding job for us on special teams. And to watch what DJ [Turner] was able to do, I thought [was] a big turning point in the game as well. Another turnover, another field position, all three units contributed yesterday. And it was just good to see those guys fly around.
"They challenged me a couple weeks ago and said, 'Man, we're tired of kicking the ball ... for touchbacks. We're tired of having a guy fair catch it. We want to cover.'
"Oh, you want to cover? They said, 'We want to run and hit.' All right, let's run and hit then.
"And that's what these guys have been doing. And that's fun to watch. That's a mentality.
"I think it takes its toll, especially in the game now where everything is kind of like woohoo. Don't want to hit anybody, and we got guys that want to go down there and kind of pound and put their face into it."
The Silver and Black will return to action versus their AFC West rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs, on Christmas Day in Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Don't miss it on Monday, December 25, at 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST.
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