Details about an internal meeting between Raiders players and Josh McDaniels went viral, but one star player wanted to add some context to the affair.
Before Las Vegas fired McDaniels, the former New England Patriots offensive coordinator allowed players to air their grievances. The meeting reportedly turned “ugly” as it devolved into players bashing McDaniels for his errors as head coach.
FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer added Sunday that interim head coach Antonio Pierce was asked to speak on McDaniels’ behalf, but when the former Giants linebacker brought up New York’s XLII over the Patriots, McDaniels reprimanded him for speaking ill of New England.
The reported details of the meeting made McDaniels look worse than he did before, and the elated reactions of Raiders players during last Sunday’s win over the Giants seemed to indicate they were glad to be rid of the former New England offensive coordinator.
But when Pat McAfee asked Maxx Crosby about the meeting, it was a different story.
“Heard a bunch of different reports, saw there was some news, things like that but the whole firing happened,” Crosby said on the “Pat McAfee Show.” “We had a big meeting. Everyone shared their peace. It wasn’t just about one single person. It was about everyone airing how they felt in general, just about what was going on. People are going to take certain things out of context. Whatever.
“But at the end of the day, it was about the people in the room that really knew what happened. There was a bunch of people that talked, including myself and others. I was a little irritated at first because this was supposed to be family business. I don’t even know how this gets out. You know how it is, there’s always going to be a couple of people that leak stuff. It was family business, simple as that. You can’t read much into it.”
Crosby’s comments can read as a player who wanted to defend McDaniels’ reputation and wanted to keep any personal issues under wraps.
It certainly is rare for media and fans to learn of what truly gets said in closed-door meetings. The internal turmoil between Mac Jones, Matt Patricia and Joe Judge caused a stir for the Patriots and highlighted how dysfunctional things were last season.
McAfee quickly moved on and didn’t get into the details about the meeting with Crosby, but Las Vegas does seem to be a good place, especially when Mark Davis hung out with players while they were smoking cigars.
