Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll turns 74 on Monday, when the Raiders take on the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 2, but you would never know it with how he acts.
Carroll, who is the oldest head coach in league history, is still full of energy, and so much so that he'll get into friendly wrestling matches with his players while they're stretching for practice.
But Carroll once again showed he is swimming in the fountain of youth ahead of the Raiders' Week 1 game against the New England Patriots after he gave a fiery pre-game speech before the contest.
According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, on the Saturday night before the game, the Raiders head coach had a wild pre-game speech that included him wrecking a whiteboard, something his team loved.
On the Saturday night before their season opener on Sept. 7, Pete Carroll used the stage of his first pregame meeting with the Raiders to kick through a whiteboard in dramatic fashion, leading to pandemonium in the room in a moment those present won't soon forget. With the whiteboard obliterated, the end result on Sunday was a 20-13 victory over the Patriots.
One source described Carroll like a WWE wrestler cutting a promo, showing the team that it didn't fly to New England to mess around. The Raiders came to compete. The blasted whiteboard was the fallout.
"That's just Pete," someone who was present for the meeting said. "That's how he turns the culture around."
By all accounts, Carroll has indeed changed the culture, which was sorely needed for a Raiders team that seemed to be a rudderless ship in 2024, and for several years before that.
Carroll was part of a massive change in the organization as a whole. Along with bringing in Carroll, the Raiders hired general manager John Spytek and added future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady to its ownership group.
So far, the results have been good, with the Raiders sitting with a 1-0 record.
Now, Las Vegas will look to make a statement against a Chargers team that beat the reigning AFC champs, the Kansas City Chiefs, in impressive fashion in Week 1.
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