Report: A Josh McDaniels-Antonio Pierce spat about 2007 Patriots helped fuel coach's firing from Raiders

BOSTON -- Some details are coming out about the end of Josh McDaniels' tenure in Las Vegas, and a dispute over the 2007 Patriots was apparently a part of the process.

Fox Sports' Jay Glazer reported Sunday that after a team-wide airing of grievances, then-linebackers coach Antonio Pierce addressed the team and referenced the mindset that his 2007 GIants team had. That team, of course, beat the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

Apparently, McDaniels -- who was the offensive coordinator for the Patriots in 2007 -- didn't appreciate that story. And that disagreement helped spur the end of McDaniels and the promotion of Pierce to interim head coach.

Here's the story, as Glazer told it:

The big thing was last Thursday, there was this big airing of the grievance meeting, and players just unloaded on Josh McDaniels -- from captain to captain, to player to player. And finally, Josh McDaniels actually had Antonio Pierce get up and speak on behalf of him and the coaches. When Antonio Pierce got up there, he said, look guys, we have to have our own control. It's gotta be about culture here. And we also have to look at it -- and he brought up the old Giants team that beat the Patriots, Josh McDaniels' team in the Super Bowl in the 2007 season. He said no matter who we played, we thought we could beat them. We had a game plan that we could beat them. We had to believe that, and that's not here. We have to believe it here at the Raiders that we can beat anybody.

Well he finishes up that speech, everybody thinks they're great, except for Josh McDaniels. Josh McDaniels then goes over to him and says, 'Don't ever talk about the Patriots like that.' And then you really saw how divided that building got. That got up to Mark Davis, and I think Mark Davis looked at it and said OK, I'm gonna choose the guy who believes that we can win every single week, and that's what his plan is going to be.

Glazer didn't say exactly how much that disagreement over the Patriots-Giants history factored in to Mark Davis' decision, but the fact that it became an issue at all just goes to show that Super Bowl XLII remains a sensitive subject for anybody who was involved from the Patriots' side.