Why the Las Vegas Raiders Are 'Pissed Off'

The Las Vegas Raiders might have been one of the most disrespected and overlooked teams in the NFL this offseason. Now, they are looking to punish the doubters.

Las Vegas Raiders Christian Wilkins, Malcom Koonce, Nesta Jade Silvera / Darrell Craig Harris, Sports Illustrated

It happened throughout the entire offseason. Overlooking of the Las Vegas Raiders was one of the most consistent angles perpetuated by the media at large. Disrespect of players by underrating them on lists or leaving them off entirely. Predicting the Raiders to have an abysmal season. Disrespect to head coach Antonio Pierce.

Cornerback Jack Jones had something to say about all of it.

"[Pierce] being ranked the 28th coach I feel like they were disrespecting, you know, me, the team, him, you know I don't like that. That set a fire under me," Jones recently told reporters. "We're going to show everybody 6-11 is crazy. I mean getting beat 11 times throughout the year? ... That's not who we are. That's not why we working, that's not why we here. And we gonna step up and we gonna show why."

Jones' teammate, linebacker Robert Spillane, agreed with the sentiment. Spillane is one of the toughest and most physical players on the Raiders. He, like Jones, is also one of their very best defensive players.

"I'm pissed off, I'm angry," Spillane said. " ... About a lot of rankings that go on. And, of course, that adds fuel to the fire, so, you see it, you don't want to see it, you don't really care, but at the end of the day, you want respect. So, what I say now gets none of that done, so we're gonna go out there and make it happen. ... It's always in our hands."

Pierce, the fiery competitor tabbed to lead the Raiders for the foreseeable future, seemed to feed off of the disrespect. Maybe even relish it.

"Well, I love it. The best part about it, we're still 0-0," Pierce said . "We haven't played any games yet and we control the games that we win and lose. And I think the one thing about this team that you'll see and it's going to carry out and you can see it in their personality is they have a chip on their shoulder. They play with a little bit -- they're pissed off. And that's good. And as long as we control that energy into something positive on game day, we'll be fine.”  

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