Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce has had a rough couple of weeks when it comes to bringing negative attention to the team, and that continued on Thursday.
According to ESPN's Kyle Bonagura , Pierce has received an eight-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA for recruiting violations during his time as an assistant coach at Arizona State.
Per the report, most of the violations happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Raiders head coach served in several roles during his four years at Arizona State, including linebackers coach, recruiting coordinator, associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator
"Most of the violations were related to what the NCAA referred to as a 'scheme' orchestrated by Pierce to circumvent restrictions in place during the COVID-19 pandemic," Bonagura reported. "Pierce facilitated impermissible recruiting contact with 35 prospects, including 'tryouts, football facility tours and entertainment.' It was also determined he directed an assistant to engage in tampering with a player enrolled at another school and traveled out of state to observe and meet with prospects during a recruiting dead period."
"In arriving at an eight-year show-cause order for Pierce, the panel emphasized his role as the ringleader in orchestrating the recruiting violations," a report from the NCAA stated, while also noting Pierce provided "false or misleading information" in the investigation and wasn't willing to provide financial records.
"Pierce used his position of authority to pressure staff members into engaging in violations, often by instilling fear that they would lose their jobs if they did not follow his orders," the report adds.
The punishment means that if Pierce were to go back to the college ranks at any point between now and Oct. 2, 2032, he would be suspended for the first football season and could not contact any of the program's coaches or players in that span.
While this won't impact Pierce as the Raiders' head coach and isn't directly related to the team, it is yet more negative attention for Las Vegas and another bad look for Pierce, who has made a few mistakes over the past few weeks.
Pierce drew unnecessary attention to his team after the Week 3 loss to the Carolina Panthers when he questioned the effort of his players, saying they made "business decisions" instead of giving full effort.
Pierce was right about at least one player, cornerback Jack Jones, but that could have been handled behind the scenes rather than the Raiders head coach saying it publicly and making it a big thing.
Then, whether accidentally or not, Pierce "liked" a social media post about a trade rumor pertaining to his star wide receiver, Davante Adams, which quickly went viral and sent the internet into a frenzy, attracting more attention the Raiders certainly didn't need.
During the offseason, Pierce was named in a bankruptcy filing by his wife that indicated he was responsible for $28 million in civil judgements .
Pierce joined the Raiders in 2022 and served as the linebackers coach until midway through the 2023 season, when he took over as the interim head coach following the firing of Josh McDaniels.
Pierce had enough success in the role that the Raiders turned him into the full-time head coach in 2024. The Raiders are currently 2-2 after four games but are set to lose their star player, Davante Adams, who has requested a trade .
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