Antonio Pierce became the latest former ESPN talent to become an NFL head coach last week when the Las Vegas Raiders promoted him to interim head coach after firing Josh McDaniels. The last guy to do it, Jeff Saturday, joined Adam Schefter this week on his podcast. There, Saturday discussed the bond he and Pierce formed during their ESPN days and how it continues with their unique coaching experiences.
“We worked together. We all work together,” Saturday explained. “He and I were actually coaching high school at the same time. We would go do NFL Live or whatever shows we were on, and we would talk about our teams.”
The two both worked at ESPN from 2013-14. Saturday continued there after that, before being plucked from the Worldwide Leader last year to become the Indianapolis Colts’ interim head coach (after previously serving as an advisor for the team). He returned to the network this September.
When Pierce and Saturday worked together at ESPN, they connected on Xs and Os as well as the lifestyle of a coach.
“We shared Hudl, which was like the high school viewing of film back in the day,” Saturday explained. “And we would talk about how we were managing our time, when we had to work versus coaching, what kind of systems we were running. It’s great.”
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However, Saturday emphasized he felt better about Pierce’s ability to succeed in Las Vegas than his own chances last season in Indianapolis. Saturday said that’s because Pierce was already on the coaching staff rather than coming straight from broadcasting.
“From my perspective, watching what he’s coming into, him being in that building gives him an advantage,” Saturday told Schefter. “Because he’s already built relationships with some of these men, these coaches, these players. So he’ll be much further ahead in terms of where he wants coaches to be…which players he wants to move into the lineup or maybe pull out of the lineup to improve.”
While Saturday has not spoken with Pierce since Pierce took the Raiders’ interim head coaching job, he believes his former ESPN teammate has the mentality to be a winning coach.
“He has a clear vision for what needs to happen for the Raiders for him to take it from where he wants to where it needs to be,” Saturday said. “Anybody who’s ever played for AP knows he’s going to shoot you straight. He ain’t mincing words, he understands the game, he’s going to chase after the game. He’s going to do his absolute best.”
Pierce had been in line to potentially take over as Arizona State head football coach for Herm Edwards. However, Pierce and other assistants were dismissed after recruiting violations during the COVID-19 shutdown.
The Raiders job is a big opportunity for Pierce, who worked his way back up in football quickly and is still just 45 years old. But while Pierce has a golden opportunity ahead of schedule, Saturday knows firsthand that sweeping change is hard to deal with at the organizational level.
“I have said this since I’ve been on ESPN and doing the broadcasting thing, and I said this when I took the [Colts] job over from Frank (Reich),” Saturday added. “Because somebody lost their job, and other coaches know they’re going to lose their job. It affects families, it affects life.”
