Raiders Coach Antonio Pierce Took Recruit’s Parents To A Strip Club (Among Other Violations) While At Arizona State

Antonio Pierce's improbable, meteoric rise to being the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders is one of the most interesting stories in the NFL. However, Pierce had better hope he can cement his status atop the Raiders. History suggests he won't, considering Las Vegas is paying Jon Gruden and Josh McDaniels many millions of dollars not to coach the team in addition to Pierce's salary. If Pierce's tenure in Sin City flames out, first of all, I think it's safe to say the man will go on a legendary bender hitherto unseen. Secondly, he can't really bank on trying his luck again in the college coaching ranks, where his sudden ascent to power in Vegas began. Why is that? Well, because back when Pierce was recruiting for Arizona State and working his way up on Herm Edwards' staff, he committed a litany of egregious recruiting violations, climaxing with a trip to a "gentlemen's club" as the NCAA put it. https://twitter.com/On3sports/status/1841876348954087512 The rap sheet of Pierce's misdeeds at Arizona State, as officially released by the NCAA, is friggin' wild. https://twitter.com/mzenitz/status/1841873436387295648 Pierce was the ringleader of a circus of minions who feared their job security if they didn't comply with his prohibited recruiting practices. I just can't get over the strip club thing. First off, imagine being the parents who got invited. Did they agree to go out of discomfort? Or were they really gung-ho about it? Either way, WTF? I'm at a loss. Here's an interesting tidbit, too, in the context of Pierce's latest scandal: https://twitter.com/ralphamsden/status/1841881655247610251 The reference to the car dealerships Pierce used to run? Apparently he sold many millions worth of vehicles out of trust, leading to his wife filing for bankruptcy this summer. All told, Pierce will be suspended for the first full season he returns to college — no matter when that is. He's effectively been blacklisted. So if the Raiders situation doesn't work out, he'd better find work fast for another NFL team. Only that may prove difficult if the way his time in Vegas is trending serves as foreshadowing. Already in his first full season at the helm, Pierce has called out players in front of the media to question their heart and effort, and alienated his best offensive player Davante Adams to the point where he's requested a trade,. https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1841773471157686783 Pierce is frankly fortunate not to be 0-4. If not for a stunning rally to beat the Ravens and the Browns' general incompetence, Las Vegas could easily be a winless team right now. Looks like Pierce is continuing to take Ls off the field. In any event, this is a terrible look for the Raiders organization to have all this Pierce-related bad PR in the wind. Being a head coach in an AFC West division featuring Andy Reid, Jim Harbaugh, and Sean Payton, it was already going to be an uphill battle for Pierce to not be far and away the worst among the quartet. Looks like even more of a challenge now, and we're but a month into the new NFL season. Woof.