A bizarre and funny moment at Pete Carroll’s introductory press conference as the new head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders has gone viral.
Carroll came out of coaching retirement to take the job with Las Vegas – making the 73-year-old the oldest coach in the NFL.
But with a coach like Carroll, he comes with an exciting pedigree of success. So much excitement that one particular former player couldn’t help himself on Monday.
In the middle of an answer, a man was heard screaming ‘RRRRRAAAAIDERRS’ – which drew laughs from the reporters and a joke out of Carroll, who told team owner Mark Davis to ‘settle down’.
But it wasn’t Davis. Instead, the person screaming out the team name was former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch.
Lynch played under Carroll with the Seattle Seahawks over parts of seven seasons – winning Super Bowl XLVIII with him.
New Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll was interrupted at his first press conference
The person who interrupted him was one of his former players – running back Marshawn Lynch
Lynch played under Carroll with the Seahawks, but he also played for the Raiders in two seasons
Lynch and Carroll also notably had a major conflict in Super Bowl XLIX. With the Seahawks on the one yard line and in need of a touchdown, Carroll decided to pass the ball instead of running it with the reliable Lynch. New England cornerback Malcolm Butler intercepted a pass from Seattle QB Russell Wilson and the Patriots won the game.
Lynch retired after the 2015 season, but returned after just one season away from the game to play for the then-Oakland Raiders. Lynch is an Oakland native.
He played with the team for two seasons and then sat out a majority of the 2019 NFL season before re-signing with Seattle after they lost multiple running backs.
Lynch was one of the best running backs of the 2010s – earning an inclusion in the league’s All-Decade team of the era.
He’s also known for his eccentric personality – with Monday’s press conference interruption another example of that.
Carroll is one of the best coaches in the history of football. He’s also one of three coaches to have ever won a Super Bowl (Seattle) and a college football national championship (USC) – the other two being Barry Switzer (Dallas Cowboys and Oklahoma) and Jimmy Johnson (Dallas Cowboys and Miami (FL)).
