Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast on the Latest with the Silver & Black, NFL

Our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast offers a deep discussion of the Silver and Black, and around the NFL.

GM John Spytek, Owner Mark Davis, and Las Vegas Raiders Coach Pete Carroll / Darrell Craig Harris, Sports Illustrated

With Pete Carroll’s coaching staff coming together and the Silver and Black of Raider Nation heading in one direction, the Las Vegas Raiders seem to be in sync.

In our latest episode of the Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast, we explore the latest with the franchise and look around the NFL.

You can watch the entire podcast below:

With the new addition of Pete Carroll as the head coach and John Spytek, here is a partial transcript of their joint press conference with owner Mark Davis.

Head Coach Pete Carroll and General Manager John Spytek

Mark Davis: “I'm here to introduce the general manager of the Las Vegas Raiders, John Spytek, and the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, Pete Carroll. I'm going to have some things to say afterwards but I'm going to let you get to these guys and learn about what the future of the Raiders holds for us. I'd also like to introduce the families of John, John's wife Kristen and Jack and Tom. Then of course Pete's wife Glena is also here. We want to welcome them to the Raider family. Let's go.”

John Spytek: “Thank you, Mark [Davis], for the introduction. I cannot express how grateful and excited I am to be here, to be given this opportunity, to be a part of an iconic cornerstone franchise like this. Just a dream come true for me, with many dreams still out in the future to get accomplished. This isn't the final goal, but this was certainly one of my career goals, and just so grateful for the time, the belief in me and Coach [Pete] Carroll to do our thing and make this organization proud. I want to thank everybody for coming today, as well. The support is awesome. It means a lot to see so many people here, seeing some familiar faces, and I can't wait to get to know you all better and get to work hand in hand with all of you. I want to thank the interview group, as well. It was a tremendous experience sitting in front of those people. Having them throw questions at me, having them challenge me. To have their belief as well along with Mark's is something that is just empowering. It gives me confidence. I feel that they made a great decision, so I couldn't be more excited to be here. I want to thank the Glazer family, too, for having me the last nine years. It was an awesome opportunity to work for a great franchise there, an awesome ownership group that gave us all the resources to do our jobs well. Proud of what we accomplished there, and just grateful to have had the opportunity to work for them. I want to thank some of my mentors that I would not be here without. The late Tom Heckert, who believed in me when I was a young scout, young cocky scout, 24 years old out of Michigan, thought I knew everything, but he took me under his wing and gave me opportunities. To me that's what this league is about, finding young people that are hungry that love the game of football, giving them a chance to pursue their passion, their dreams. Jason Licht, my boss the last nine years at Tampa, believing in me when I was a young scout, as well, in Philadelphia, giving me an amazing chance to help lead a franchise at a young age, at 35 years old. I worked every day to make him proud. We accomplished a lot together, and I'm just so grateful for him. Then two of my other mentors from the dreaded Denver Broncos, I have to say it, though, Matt Russell and John Elway from my time there. They picked me up when I was kind of at a low in my professional career and gave me an opportunity to revitalize myself, reshape myself, and chase a passion again. My family sitting in the front row here, I'm going to try not to get too choked up. My wife Kristen is my rock. She is the strongest person I know. She is an unbelievable mother to these two boys, Jack and Tommy down here, who I couldn't be more proud of. They're doing awesome right now. They're behaving. They look awesome in Silver and Black, and they cannot wait for me to shut up so they can go out and throw balls all over the practice field out there. You're going to see my wife around a lot. She is going to be a big pillar in this community. We are going to be big pillars in this community. It's important to us to give back, and she is as tough as they come, too, so I promise you I'm ready for this job because she's harder on me at home than anybody else is when it comes to football. My mom and my dad, I wish they could be here today. My dad is actually getting hip surgery right now, a hip replacement so he can get back on the golf course and pickleball. I love you both. I would not be here without your love and support. You showed me what it is to be a parent, to support children, and I think these two are doing so well right now because of the gifts that my mom and dad gave me and the support they gave me growing up. A couple more people here, my high school coach, Bill Young, one of the winningest coaches in the history of the state of Wisconsin. I learned at a young age what winning looks like, what a great program looks like, what toughness looks like, how to compete. I've never forgot it. He's still coaching to this day. He's like 75 years old. He can't give it up, and wins state championships all the time. So Coach [Bill Young], I hope you're out there watching somewhere. I love you…”

Pete Carroll: “Why are you looking at me?”

Spytek: “Just a guy that loves football, just like you. A couple more, then I'll turn it over to this guy. Lloyd Carr and the University of Michigan for giving me a chance to follow my first football dream, to play at the greatest university there is. I know a lot of people would disagree with that, but we have the most wins all time, and I will not apologize for that. I learned about what team is about, what selflessness is about, what toughness is about, what competitive stamina is about, and that's going to be some of the pillars that we talk about and enforce here. All the scouts that I've worked with throughout my career, I learned so much from you. This is not me sitting up here. I feel like this is us sitting up here. I tried to learn so much from every person that I was around, from the Eagles to the Browns to the Broncos to the Bucs and now here. I don't pretend to have all the answers. I met so many wonderful people along the way that I worked great with that helped me get to where I'm at. Then the final people I want to thank are the players. To me this game has always been about the players. I have a love affair of watching this game. I have a love affair of watching players compete. They're the ones that lay it on the line every Sunday, Monday night. My respect for them is immense. I would not be here without the players on the teams I've been a part of, the Tristan Wirfs of the world, the Peyton Mannings of the world, the Demaryius Thomases of the world, I could go on and on, Joe Thomas. I've been around truly some of the great players of the last 20 years, and I've got to see what it looks like, what greatness looks like, what competitiveness looks like. I see Maxx [Crosby] standing back there. He embodies all that stuff that we're talking about, and I just love watching players compete and perform, and I am so grateful to all the men that competed and lay it on the line so I can sit in a spot like this today. The last thing I want to say before I turn it over to Coach [Carroll] is I just -- when I dreamt about having one of these jobs, I always wanted it to be with an iconic franchise like the Raiders. I'm not sure I ever got far enough in my dreams as a young kid in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, that I could be sitting up here with the Raiders, but here I am. There's just some teams where it means a little bit more. There's just some teams where the NFL is better when they're crushing it. To have been given that responsibility is not something I take lightly, but I am extremely honored and humbled to be up here with an opportunity out in front of us, and I cannot be more excited to get started and to get started with Coach Carroll here. I appreciate you all. I look forward to getting to know all your names, getting to know all of you better, talking with you, and build this thing the right way so the Raider Nation can be proud, the former players for the Raiders can be proud, and we can be where some of these teams are now, still playing. That's the goal. Thank you all.”

Coach Carroll: “This special day is unique, and for so many reasons. I first want to say, I'm so fired up to be here with John [Spytek] because I know that first time around is really something, and so we're going to celebrate this in a fantastic way. We're going to partner in this thing. It's so important that our relationship is dynamic and extraordinary and true, so you'll see that come in time. Nice job, man. Congrats. Being a kid that grew up in the Bay Area, my dad made me a Niners fan when he was going to Kezar Stadium back in the day, parking at Golden Gate Park, and then the Raiders came to town. When you're in the Bay Area, you can take sides and all, but the Raiders captured me a long time ago. I'm just filled with gratitude to be part of this. There's so many elements that made this come together, that are so special and so unique, and as you heard John, start right with family and the support that we get. My wife Glena is here. She's been through it all. We've been through every imaginable experience in this game, and she has stood so strong with me, and she's meant everything in the world. She's been involved with this process all the way throughout, and side by side, we're here. We're really excited about that. We've got a big family, and because you mentioned the numbers, I've got grandkids and I love them and we've got a bunch of them and we've got a whole family to follow this adventure that we take here. This really begins with the Davis family. I grew up under Mark's dad watching this program come together, but I've seen in such short order just in this time that we've come together to get to this point Mark Davis put together an extraordinary group to make this happen and make this a unique opportunity in the league and a unique opportunity for the Raider Nation and for our fans that will follow us. It's one of a kind. He's assembled a group to support us that I know that John and I have just been knocked out by ownership that is one of a kind. Egon Durban is part of this; Michael Milton is part of this; Tom Wagner is part of this. But when Mark figured out how valuable it would be to put Tom Brady in this mix and bring that kind of football background and history, Mark made a great move. It's our job to celebrate that for Mark and to make sure that this comes to life the way it can, with great possibilities and great future and the immediate future, as well. My hat's off to you guys. I'm so fired up that we're doing this together. It's going to be unique, and they're going to be surprised what comes. As far as for my opportunities, I've been all over the place. You guys know that, and have had great opportunities to start up programs that have faltered in the past, and when we went to USC it was after being fired a couple times, and I've been through that. I was a young coach and found out I didn't know anything after my experiences, but had an opportunity to find my philosophy and my approach following the New England days, and the next stop was USC. That university was an extraordinary match for me at the time. They were struggling. We put something together and we did something historic there really based on a philosophy that came out of all of the years before, the 27 years it took me to get to that point in my coaching career. To me, I look back at the days in Los Angeles, at SC, as really the building blocks of the philosophy that we were able to take to Seattle and to carry the mentality and the approach and the design of it and the culture that we established into the NFL to see if it would work. It was really just an experiment in my mind. But in both situations, it just took us a couple years to get going. I know that rhythm, and I am expecting that rhythm. I'm anticipating that we're going to find that rhythm right here, right now, here in Vegas. With the Raiders and this opportunity, I feel like I've been there before, and I'm going to bank on that. I'm going to follow my instincts and support with John and as we extend to ownership in a way that we're going to be proud of, and we're going to be fired up about who we are and what we stand for. We have a great following in the Raider Nation and they've made an amazing statement globally. I'm so proud to be part of that and recognizing that we get to represent our following, and here in Las Vegas to do it in this setting right here where people can't wait to come see us, they can't wait to see what we're all about. Wherever our fans come from, we do want to fill up our stadium with our guys. I know that we have a good draw for people. But it's real. This is a real challenge for us, and we're going to go arm in arm, John and I, and we're going to put this thing together in a way that's going to make you proud. You're all wondering about timelines and all of that. It took us a few years to get to the very top of the last couple programs I was with. We're starting right now, going for it immediately. We don't have some time that we've got to make it five, six years down the road. That's not what we're thinking. We've got to start right now to go after it and build this team as quickly as we can. As John saw Maxx [Crosby] back there, Maxx, send the message, man. We're coming after you. We're going to come find you guys and get this thing rolling as soon as possible, with the highest of expectations, with a mentality that will drive high performance in a way that hopefully everybody is going to hear us and they're going to know us. I'm really proud to take on that challenge. Thrilled to be here. Thanks again to Mark and Tom, and guys, thank you here. Away we go. Let's go. Raiders Nation, let's go, baby.”

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