Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis has not addressed the media since the team decided to fire head coach Antonio Pierce. This has led to a lot of reporting and speculation on the matter.
While Pierce looked in over his head in his first year as the full-time head coach, coaches who have looked far worse have gotten at least two years to make things work. However, what Pierce had working against him was the fact that Tom Brady became a part owner of the franchise during the season.
It wasn't clear how much involvement Brady would have on football matters but now it has become evident that he's one of the main shot callers in Las Vegas. In fact, his thoughts on Pierce may have been what killed his chances of keeping the job long-term.
According to Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, Brady's likely not going to be running the team day-to-day but he's got a lot of power.
"Now, to be clear, I don’t think it’s Brady’s intention to be there day to day—his family being in Florida full-time will likely prevent that for the time being," Breer wrote. "But I also don’t think he’s going to put his name on anything that he doesn’t feel like he can fully put his name behind. It’s been well established that Brady wasn’t wild about the way things operated with Antonio Pierce, which is one reason why Pierce isn’t there anymore."
It's not clear what about Pierce's operation that Brady didn't like. It's no secret that Pierce was a very player-friendly coach and that's something Brady is used to from his time in New England.
Brady may also not have liked how Pierce had a large and bloated coaching staff. Regardless, he'll now have a big say on who the next coach is and should be able to land somebody he's more comfortable with.