Raiders Legend Marcus Allen on the Importance of Leadership for the Silver and Black

The Las Vegas Raiders will soon kick off another season of play. Former Raiders RB Marcus Allen firmly believes the team is under the right leadership and that leadership can take the team a long way.

Nov 20, 2014; Oakland, CA, USA; Los Angeles Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs former running back Marcus Allen attends the game between the Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

After the first half of last season, the Las Vegas Raiders struggled mightily, mainly because of a lack of leadership.

The Raiders promoted Antonio Pierce to the interim head coaching position, later removing the interim tag from his title. The Raiders’ switch to Pierce jumpstarted the players in the locker room. Pierce’s experience as a former player in the National Football League was a common ground for the players whom the team’s previous coaching staff failed to connect with successfully. 

While the Raiders struggled in certain aspects last season, they undoubtedly improved in multiple areas: effort, execution and accountability. The locker room responded to Coach Pierce in a way that was not the case with Josh McDaniels. Upon Pierce’s promotion last season, nearly every player on the team immediately increased their production, proving how critical leadership is in football, especially in the NFL. 

Now that the interim tag has been removed from his title, Pierce sets out to prove the second half of last season was no fluke. He aims to take the changes and improvements he helped cultivate last season and do so again this season, for the whole season, instead of only the second half. 

Pro Football Hall-of-Fame and former Raiders running back Marcus Allen recently expressed confidence in Pierce’s ability to get the most out of the current Raiders roster. For Allen, the importance of leadership cannot be overstated. He noted that his outstanding leadership had much to do with the success he experienced as a running back during his time in the league.

“[Former USC head football coach] John Robinson was a great leader for me," Allen said at the Raiders’ Once a Raider, Always a Raider Alumni event. "Just to give you an example of someone who inspired me. John Robinson, he never mentioned another university. He always said the [Los Angeles] Rams wanted to play us. 

“You have to understand, for an 18 to 20-year-old kid, who is in college, and he mentioned the Rams. He had us believing that we could actually play the Rams. So, that’s great leadership. Tom Flores was completely different. He was completely different. Tom was a master of–he didn’t have to say much, but he allowed you to play with freedom.”

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