COSTA MESA, Calif. — The Las Vegas Raiders players were in for a surprise when they showed up for the first day of the offseason program this spring. As they settled in the film room, they couldn’t believe their eyes.
Their assistant coaches were not just sitting around, but actually engaging in physical activities, stretching and grinding through the same conditioning test that the players had to go through.
“The players laughed a lot,” coach Antonio Pierce recalled last week as he talked about the video clip that was shared with the team. “We had Rob (Ryan) out there with his shirt off and belly out. We had Marvin Lewis, 65 years old, and Joe Philbin on the bike.”
“Oh man, it was shocking,” Ryan, the Raiders’ 61-year-old senior defensive assistant coach, expressed.
Pierce had a clear motive behind this unusual move. He wanted his coaching staff to focus on their health and unity, just like the players did. It wasn’t all just for laughs; there was a message underlying all the humor.
The test itself was a modified version of what the players went through. It included interval runs, on-field drills, and hitting the weight-room bars.
Despite their age, the older coaches pushed themselves just as hard as the younger ones, even though they weren’t required to do as much in the test. Ryan, in particular, managed to shed eight pounds over the course of two months of training.
“The man’s making me do it, so I started working out a little bit each day a couple of months in advance,” Ryan explained. “They let me go on the bike rather than risk injury. It was a cool experience, and I actually ended up losing weight in the process. When it was all said and done, it was a proud moment.”
In this journey towards improved health and camaraderie, the Raiders coaching staff proved that age is just a number when it comes to keeping up with the demands of an NFL offseason program. As they continue to work together and push each other towards their goals, they set an example for the players and the entire organization to follow.
