Young is still going strong at Catholic Memorial High in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

“He’s 75 years old, can’t give it up and wins state championships all the time,” Spytek said.

With a sense of perfect timing, the man sitting to his left interjected, “Why are you looking at me?”

Pete Carroll will turn 74 in September when he embarks on his first season as head coach of the Raiders.

Carroll and Spytek fielded questions for nearly a half-hour at the club facility in Henderson, Nevada. Carroll took a year off after 14 years with the Seattle Seahawks. Spytek, who came with a big endorsement from minority owner Tom Brady, spent the last nine years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, including the last two as assistant general manager. He has an extensive scouting and personnel background that includes stints with the Eagles, Lions, Browns and Broncos.

They took a page from every introductory press conference in the history of the sport when speaking of wanting players who “love football” and insisting on daily competition, the same thing Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch have talked about for the last eight years with the 49ers.

Yet make no mistake. This is a big departure for the Raiders, a franchise shrouded by gloom and doom that has been interrupted only intermittently since they returned to Oakland in 1995 before leaving for Las Vegas after 25 seasons.

In an AFC West where the head coaches are the Chiefs’ Andy Reid, Denver’s Sean Payton and the Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh, the Raiders suddenly don’t look overmatched. And there’s always the Harbaugh-Carroll dynamic to look forward to, a rivalry that began with Stanford-USC and continued with 49ers-Seahawks.

There hasn’t been this kind of natural jolt of energy for the franchise since Jon Gruden arrived for the first time in 1998. Gruden formed an alliance with owner Al Davis that wouldn’t last and helped the franchise temporarily reverse its fortunes with a run of three straight division titles (the last one under Bill Callahan).

From 2003 until now, it’s been Norv Turner . . . Art Shell Part II . . . Lane Kiffin . . . Tom Cable . . . Hue Jackson . . . Dennis Allen . . . Jack Del Rio . . . Gruden Part II . . . Josh McDaniels . . . Antonio Pierce. That list doesn’t even include interim coaches Tony Sparano and Rich Bisaccia.

At no point did the cloud over the franchise lift, even when owner Mark Davis secured a new state-of-the-art home in Las Vegas that put the Raiders on a competitive level financially with the rest of the league.

There was an outlier under Del Rio in 2016 when quarterback Derek Carr broke his leg on Christmas Eve. There was an out-of-the-blue playoff berth in 2021 under Bisaccia after Gruden was fired for offensive leaked emails, a 10-7 season that didn’t appear sustainable.

Then came the McDaniel-Dave Ziegler disaster, with McDaniel managing to alienate his own team and a fan base in just 25 games with nine wins.

This one feels different. We’ll learn about Spytek as it goes, but Carroll is a known commodity and in terms of positive vibes has been a force of nature since taking over at USC in 2001 and rebuilding it into a national power before leaving for Seattle. He won 10 or more games eight times and won one of two Super Bowls.

Carroll did it without ever building a cynical edge or carrying himself as if he were curing cancer. There’s no sense of self-importance or the secretive paranoia that is so easily exacerbated by the toxic environment that has surrounded the Raiders for years.

The press conference lacked organizational hyperbole in terms of the “Greatness of the Raiders” because let’s face it — the Raiders haven’t been great for a long, long time because of dysfunction at just about every level. For a change, it didn’t feel like an infomercial.

Carroll, a Marin County native and product of Redwood High, even downplayed the aspect of winning the fourth Lombardi Trophy for the franchise.

“It hasn’t been about trying to trying to win championship games so I can put that banner or ring in my drawer,” Carroll said. “It’s about competing. It’s about being the best you can possibly be with what you have to work with and taking on the challenges of it.”

Another key hire wasn’t present at the press conference with Carroll and Spytek but it’s pretty clear he’ll have a major say in remaking the Raiders. Minority owner Tom Brady, whose Hall of Fame career was launched by the “Tuck Rule” and Raider misfortune after the 2001 season, pushed for Spytek hard and was consulted about Carroll.

One of Brady’s biggest duties will be helping to find a franchise quarterback. His duties won’t be simply ceremonial and an opportunity to use the Brady name, image and likeness to go along with seven Super Bowl rings.

Carroll said Brady has been “integrally involved. … This is his opportunity to put a stamp on the franchise and we’re excited to represent that. He’s involved, he’s going to continue to be involved and we’re going to lean on him like crazy.”

While saying he wasn’t “proud of wearing No. 73 on my back” Carroll shrugged off ageism as an artificial barrier.

“If there’s anybody out there that’s old and wants to know how you do it, you freaking battle every day and you compete and you find a way to get better,” Carroll said. “Obviously I’m jacked up. That shouldn’t surprise you.”

The only surprise is that the Raiders may have finally done something right.

The investment company had put $5.7 million into GameOn in 2021. The representative — a Game On board member — got the statement, showing a healthy $13.4 million balance.

But according to claims in a federal fraud indictment this week against GameOn CEO and co-founder Alexander Beckman and his wife Valerie Lau Beckman, all was not as it seemed. To start, the bank balance was $25.93. Mrs. Beckman had gone to the bank, emailed the fake statement to a bank employee, and asked the worker to put it in the envelope for her husband to pick up, the indictment alleged.

While most of the couple’s fraudulent behavior alleged by federal prosecutors took the form of purportedly falsified financial statements and pilfered identities, the episode at the bank involved an on-the-ground gambit that appeared — at first — to work, the indictment filed Tuesday claimed.

The investor’s representative “believed the statement was real and shared pictures of it with other members of GameOn’s board,” the indictment said.

That afternoon last June was the culmination of a years-long fraud by the pair that cost investors and the company more than $60 million, some of which was used by the Beckmans to buy homes, luxury cars, and jewelry, and to pay private schools attended by Mr. Beckman’s children, the indictment in San Francisco U.S. District Court alleged.

The couple were arrested Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice said. A lawyer for Mr. Beckman did not respond to requests for comment. Mrs. Beckman could not be reached.

GameOn, a San Francisco company launched in 2014, served customers including American professional sports teams, leagues and associations, as well as prominent fashion and retail brands, the indictment said. Its product was an AI chatbot intended to engage with its clients’ fans, customers and consumers. Which teams and leagues were clients is not specified in the indictment.

However, the Los Angeles Chargers National Football League team in 2020 announced it was using GameOn’s chatbot. Posts by GameOn on social media platform X and company press releases tout partnerships with the New York Yankees Major League Baseball team, the Las Vegas Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars NFL teams, the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association, the Las Vegas Aces and Chicago Sky of the Women’s National Basketball Association, United Kingdom soccer titan Arsenal, and the mixed-martial-arts Professional Fighters League. GameOn press releases also claimed partnerships with luxury brands Valentino and Armani.

No wrongdoing is alleged against GameOn clients.

The indictment describes an enterprise constantly teetering on the edge of failure as the Beckmans allegedly solicited and obtained investments via false financial documents that dramatically overstated company sales, profit and bank balances.

“GameOn depended on new investor funds to operate, burned through its funds, received overdraft notices from banks, was delinquent in paying certain customers, and often was on the brink of not having enough money in the bank to operate and make payroll,” the indictment claimed.

The investment firm whose representative went to the bank that day was one of four such firms — two in San Francisco, two in New York — allegedly scammed by the Beckmans. The two other purported fraud victims were individuals from northern California.

The firm — identified as “Investor 1” in the indictment — in April 2021 received an email from Mrs. Beckman with a table showing $4 million in sales and $1.9 million in profit for that month, but sales for that entire year never topped $1 million, the indictment claimed. The investment firm sent GameOn $2.5 million three days later, the indictment said.

The following month, Mrs. Beckman sent the firm a spreadsheet from Mr. Beckman indicating GameOn had close to $9 million in two banks, when in reality it had a negative balance at one of the banks and $2,350 in the other. After Mrs. Beckman followed up in September with allegedly inflated sales and profit numbers, the investment company sent another $3.2 million, the indictment claimed.

Similar transactions followed the same pattern, with GameOn claiming to one investor it made $72.4 million in sales and $56.8 million in profits from January through September 2023, when the company turned less than $1 million in profit that whole year, the indictment alleged.

To distribute false information to investors, Beckman created fake email addresses for real GameOn workers: a contractor, a consultant, and a part-time chief financial officer, the indictment claimed. He also allegedly “fabricated two GameOn audit reports using the names, signatures, and trademarks of reputable accounting firms,” the indictment said.

The couple used $4.2 million in ill-gotten gains to buy a property in San Francisco — in posh Presidio Heights, court records indicate — and put another $360,000 of investors’ money toward another home in the city, the indictment claimed. Hundreds of thousands each went to the private school, a social club where the Beckmans married in November 2023, and more than $100,000 went to pay personal property taxes, the indictment claimed.

Tech website VentureBeat reported in July 2024 that Beckman resigned from GameOn early that month, days after a probe by the startup’s board found that a bank account that should have had $11 million in it had only 37 cents.

The Beckmans, both granted bail Thursday for $1 million each according to court records, could face years in prison if convicted.

The Musketeers are the only French team in the European League. Home games are at the 19,500-capacity Stade Jean Bouin, which is directly opposite soccer club Paris Saint-Germain’s stadium.

The 61-year-old American formerly guided the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and Oakland Raiders.

Del Rio had a 93-94 record in a 12-year NFL head coaching career that included stints with the Jaguars (2003-11) and Raiders (2015-17). He played linebacker in the NFL from 1985-95 after a stellar college career at Southern California.

He stepped down in November from his previous position as a senior adviser on Wisconsin’s coaching staff after he was arrested near campus for operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

Before Wisconsin, he spent four years as the Washington Commanders’ defensive coordinator.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

HENDERSON, Nev. — The Las Vegas Raiders fired Antonio Pierce on Tuesday after just one season as their full-time head coach, the latest in a line of coaching changes over the past several years.

“We appreciate Antonio’s leadership, first as an interim head coach and this past season as the head coach,” the team said in a statement. “Antonio grew up a Raiders fan and his Silver and Black roots run deep. We are grateful for his ability to reignite what it means to be a Raider throughout the entire organization. We wish nothing but the best for Antonio and his family in the future.”

Pierce took over as the interim coach midway through the 2023 season and went 5-4 the rest of the way, earning strong player support for him to get the job on a full-time basis.

But the Raiders, after a 2-2 start, went on a 10-game losing streak to put his job in jeopardy. The Raiders dealt with a number of injuries including to defensive linemen Maxx Crosby and Christian Wilkins, navigated the Davante Adams early season drama that culminated with a trade to the New York Jets and finished the season 4-13.

Pierce, a former NFL player who coached at Long Beach Poly High School, was the fourth full-time Raiders coach — Rich Bisaccia closed out the 2021 season as the interim coach — in the past decade.

As for where the Raiders turn next, Mike Vrabel has been rumored as a possible candidate. He and Raiders minority owner Tom Brady were teammates with the Patriots, but Vrabel also figures to attract a lot of attention from other clubs with openings, perhaps including in New England.

But simply making the playoffs would be a major step forward for whichever coach gets the job. The Raiders’ most recent postseason appearance was three years ago; before that, they advanced to the playoffs just once since losing in the Super Bowl for the 2002 season.

General manager Tom Telesco will need to fix a number of holes to give the new coach a reasonable chance to compete, most notably addressing running back and wide receiver and finding more depth for the defense.

NEW YORK  — Years before Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Malcolm Koonce was born, his father spent time in prison for an armed robbery conviction that prosecutors now say was tainted by a detective’s lies and “highly suggestive” photo identification techniques.

On Friday, a suburban New York judge agreed and erased 67-year-old Jeffrey Koonce’s conviction and dismissed his indictment more than four decades after a 1981 robbery at Vernon Stars Rod and Gun Club in Mount Vernon.

RELATED: Appellate court overturns rape conviction of ex-49ers star Dana Stubblefield 

Koonce, who spent nearly eight years in prison, has always maintained his innocence and insisted that he was nowhere near the club, where three people were struck by shotgun pellets as patrons were looted of cash and jewelry.

Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah backed his request to erase the conviction after her office uncovered problems with the case.

Rocah’s Conviction Review Unit investigated the 1983 conviction and found evidence that Mount Vernon police pressured the lone victim-witness to implicate Koonce, made Koonce’s picture larger than others in a photo array and failed to interview alibi witnesses who corroborated his claim that he was elsewhere.

A Mount Vernon detective later lied about the composition of the photo arrays when he testified at pretrial hearings and Koonce’s trial, and a court subsequently ordered the department to change its unduly suggestive photo identification practices, Rocah said. One of the detectives involved in Koonce’s case later went to prison after a federal corruption sting.

In a statement, Rocah said Koonce’s conviction “was tainted by such questionable investigatory processes and procedures” that her office can no longer stand by it.

Koonce and his lawyer, Karen Newirth, appeared Friday before Westchester County Judge James McCarty to request that he vacate Koonce’s robbery and weapons possession convictions and dismiss the underlying indictment.

“Today marks the end of a 41-year injustice, as Mr. Koonce is finally vindicated in court. DA Mimi Rocah and her team should be commended for their commitment to seeing justice done for Mr. Koonce,” Newirth said.

Koonce absconded from court during jury deliberations and was found about seven months later, sleeping on his girlfriend’s couch in the Bronx, according to newspaper reports from the time.

He was sentenced to 7½ to 15 years in prison for the robbery and served a shorter, simultaneous sentence for bail jumping. He was released on parole in August 1992. His brother, Paul, a high school sophomore at the time, also was charged in the robbery. He was acquitted.

Malcolm Koonce was born in 1998. The NFL’s Raiders drafted him in 2021. Another son, Dejuan Koonce, is a retired New York state trooper who was assigned to protective details for Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

One of the perpetrators had a sawed-off shotgun and fired off at least two rounds, striking a 15-year-old and two other patrons, police said.

Rocah’s office found that detectives used dubious tactics to compel a victim to identify Koonce as the shooter. He was the only person to do so. Others told investigators that it was too dark in the club to identify the perpetrators by their faces.

The witness, a high school freshman at the time, picked Koonce out of a photo array that featured Koonce’s enlarged photo and smaller images of men who didn’t look like him.

The witness later told Rocah’s office that he didn’t remember seeing any faces in the dark club and that other patrons immediately covered him after the shooting, obscuring his view.

Detectives then brought Koonce to the hospital where the witness was being treated so he could identify him in person. The witness told a pretrial hearing that he felt pressured to quickly identify Koonce. The trial judge called the tactic “impermissibly suggestive.”

Rocah’s office also found Mount Vernon detectives harmed Koonce by failing to interview all his alibi witnesses. They include a now-retired New York City police detective who said Koonce was with him in the city the night of the robbery.

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Associated Press writer Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this report.

That will almost surely be the case again this week in Sacramento. State Sen. Dave Cortese, of San Jose, plans to introduce a resolution supporting former NFL quarterback Jim Plunkett’s candidacy for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Plunkett, the South Bay native and former Stanford quarterback, is among 31 finalists in the hall’s “Seniors” category. In early December, a Blue Ribbon Committee will trim the list to nine. In February, three of the nine “Seniors” will be elected to the hall along with more recent players.

I am not involved in that process. But I have been a Hall of Fame voter for other sports. And I can testify that no resolution from any state senator ever influenced my thinking. Or the thinking of any other voter I know. What could be Cortese’s motivation?

“Our family’s house was just a short distance from James Lick High School in San Jose, where Jim played high school football,” Cortese explained in a phone call. “I’m proud to have grown up in the same neighborhoods where he was raised.”

So, it’s personal. And a fine gesture. But to be blunt, Plunkett’s selection faces long odds. Other candidates have thicker curriculum vitaes. They threw for more yards and touchdowns, earned more honors. Plunkett never made a Pro Bowl team. He had a .500 record as a starting quarterback.

Plunkett’s best resume entry? He is one of just 13 quarterbacks to win two or more Super Bowls — and of the 10 who are eligible for Hall of Fame consideration, all have been inducted. Except for Plunkett, the MVP of Super Bowl XV with the Raiders.

Off the field

Is that enough? Probably not. But Cortese has built an intriguing additional case, based on Plunkett’s massively influential role helping the NFL become North America’s most widely followed professional sport. I’m on board with that case, even if it technically violates a voting dictum.

Hall of Fame selection members are instructed to consider “only on-the-field accomplishments” for candidates. Plunkett’s Heisman Trophy at Stanford can’t be a factor. Nor can his inspiring life story of growing up as the son of two blind parents, working part-time jobs while excelling at James Lick to earn his college scholarship.

But guess what? That same “only-on-the-field” standard was in effect in 2006 when hall voters decided whether to induct John Madden as a coach. In Oakland for 10 seasons, he did win 112 games and a Super Bowl. But other coaches who are not in the hall achieved more — including former 49ers coach George Seifert, who won 124 games and two Super Bowls.

Voters were supposed to ignore Madden’s brilliant television work and how he helped create a video game that built NFL interest among millions of young fans. But did they? Of course not. The voters essentially inducted John Madden for being the one and only John Madden, honoring all his contributions.

Likewise, Jim Plunkett should be inducted for being the one and only Jim Plunkett. He entered the NFL when Latino sports fans were generally more interested in soccer or baseball. A typical NFL crowd in the 1960s through the early 1970s was pretty much monochromatic, the milky opposite of diverse.

Take a photo of an NFL crowd today — particularly in California, Texas, Arizona and Florida — and you will notice Latino and Hispanic faces of all sorts. A recent Nielsen survey revealed that Latinos follow the NFL more intensely than any other sport — and are more passionate about the NFL than American sports fans in general.

A wider fan net

This didn’t happen overnight. In 1971, Plunkett became the first Mexican-American player selected as an NFL overall No. 1 draft pick. This ramped up the interest of Latino fans, especially when Plunkett joined the Raiders in 1979 and won those Super Bowl titles, one in Oakland and one after the franchise moved to Los Angeles. The Latino NFL fan base up and down the state exploded into a sea of Raiders jerseys at the mall, the beach and neighborhood barbecues. Not to mention the stadiums.

During Plunkett’s era, he formed a Hispanic NFL troika with his Raiders coach, Tom Flores, and Cincinnati lineman Anthony Munoz. Flores and Munoz are already in the Hall of Fame. But Plunkett was the most visible and identifiable personality of the three.

The cultural motor of pro football fandom shifted gears when Plunkett planted the flag as the NFL’s first Latino Super Bowl champion quarterback. There are Raiders fans today who became Raiders fans because their dads and grandfathers became Raiders fans because of Plunkett. He deserves immense credit for making the NFL an ethnically ecumenical fan soup.

In Sacramento, Cortese often hears his peers philosophize about “a California for all.” He knows that pro football also wants to cast as wide a fan net as possible.

“If you want an NFL for all, you can’t ignore the winners and champions who created that for you,” Cortese said. “That should be the closing argument.”

Right. But he still intends to introduce the resolution with the flowery language. Please forgive him.

Mark Purdy is a former sports columnist for The Mercury News.

MADISON, Wis. — Former Oakland Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio was arrested by Madison police for operating a vehicle while intoxicated and will step down from his role on Wisconsin’s coaching staff , coach Luke Fickell announced Monday.

Del Rio, the only head coach over the past two decades to lead the Raiders to the playoffs, had joined Wisconsin’s staff in August as a senior adviser to Fickell.

Madison police said Del Rio was arrested early Friday for a first-offense OWI after a vehicle hit a stop sign and broke a fence before resting in a yard. Police said Del Rio was walking away from the area and showed signs of impairment when they arrived at 12:35 am

“He’s going to move forward and he’s going to resign and move on,” Fickell said. “It’s a tough situation. Decisions that all of us have to be able to take full responsibility for. I know that’s what Jack will do, and we’ll continue to move forward.”

The 61-year-old Del Rio came to Wisconsin after spending the last four years as the Washington Commanders’ defensive coordinator. He was fired 12 games into the 2023 season.

Del Rio had a 93-94 record in a 12-year NFL head coaching career that included stints with the Jaguars (2003-11) and Raiders (2015-17). Del Rio’s 25-23 record is the best of any Raiders coach since Hall of Famer Tom Flores was replaced following the 1987 season.

The former Hayward High three-sport star played linebacker in the NFL from 1985-95 after a stellar college career at Southern California.

Wisconsin (5-4, 3-3 Big Ten) lost its last two games heading into Saturday’s home matchup with No. 1 Oregon (10-0, 7-0, No. 1 CFP).

But this month, the renowned Raiders quarterback received a significant boost behind his nomination into the Hall’s Class of 2025 with letters of support from State Senator Dave Cortese, Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, the California Latino Legislative Caucus, the Native American Legislative Caucus and his alma mater, Stanford University.

What’s more, the inaugural Seniors Selection Committee of the Pro Football Hall of Fame placed Plunkett’s name in contention after narrowing the original candidate list of 182 down to 60. On Oct. 22, the committee narrowed the list further to 31, with Plunkett’s name still included, but will now vote on only nine semifinalists come November.

Plunkett, who lives in Atherton, starred in the NFL and has an inspirational life story of overcoming all the odds. He was born on Dec. 5, 1947, in San Jose to Mexican-American parents, William Gutierrez Plunkett and Carmen Blea. His mother was also of Cherokee Native American ancestry. But both parents suffered from blindness, and his family faced much economic hardship growing up. His father died at the age of 56 in 1969 just after his sophomore year in college.

But it was at East San Jose’s James Lick High School where Plunkett rose as a star athlete competing in football, basketball, baseball, track and wrestling after previously attending Overfelt High School.

He went on to graduate from Stanford, where he led the football team as quarterback to a Rose Bowl victory by defeating top-ranked Ohio State 27-17. He was subsequently awarded the Heisman Trophy in 1970, becoming the first Latino/Native American and the only Stanford player to ever win the prestigious honor.

In 1971, Plunkett was chosen for the first overall pick in the NFL Draft by the Boston Patriots, becoming the first Latino/Native American player to ever be drafted with the first overall pick. Plunkett would later play for the San Francisco 49ers from 1976 to 1978.

But in 1978, he joined the Oakland Raiders under legendary coach Tom Flores and led his team to four playoff victories, including the first-ever victory by a wild card team in Super Bowl XV on Jan. 25, 1981, over the Philadelphia Eagles. Plunkett was named game MVP, becoming the first person of color to quarterback a team to a Super Bowl victory. In January 1984, he again led the Raiders, who had by then moved to Los Angeles, to victory in Super Bowl XVIII with a resounding 38-9 win over Washington.

Plunkett was forced to retire in 1987 after a shoulder injury. But during his 17-year NFL career, he passed for 25,882 yards and 164 touchdowns, adding 1,337 yards and 14 touchdowns as a rusher. He has since been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame (1990), the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame (1990), the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (1992), the California Sports Hall of Fame (2007) and most recently the International Sports Hall of Fame (2024). But it’s the most prestigious Pro Football Hall of Fame honor that continues to elude him despite prior nominations.

Today, Plunkett, who suffers from chronic sports-related health conditions, remains a source of pride for Californians, and his resilience and life story continue to be an inspiration about overcoming adversity. But it’s an injustice to see one of our greatest quarterbacks in NFL history wait for this ultimate recognition. It’s time to finally induct Jim Plunkett into the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Luis Alejo is a Monterey County supervisor representing Salinas, and Ignacio Ornelas is a lecturer and archivist at Stanford University.

COSTA MESA — The Pacific Ocean can be seen in the distance, Huntington Beach Pier is a short walk away and bars and restaurants crowd the city square.

Flying high above one such establishment is a half-Raiders, half-Dodgers flag.

Killarney’s Irish Pub on Sunday afternoons during the NFL season is packed with fans wearing silver and black. An emcee takes over the microphone, the Raiders’ theme song “The Autumn Wind” is played and all 15 TVs inside and the four outside are tuned to Las Vegas games.

“I’d say the environment here is pretty special,” Killarney’s general manager Clay Dale said. “Pun intended, it’s a very intoxicating environment.”

The Rams and Chargers call the Los Angeles area home, but the Raiders maintain a massive presence in the region. And the Raiders have returned to SoCal – for the next two weeks, anyway.

They have taken over the Chargers’ former training camp home in Costa Mesa, about a 20-minute drive from Killarney’s. But the Raiders, who played in Los Angeles from 1982-94 in between stints in Oakland, can’t tap into their Southern California fan base to generate in-person excitement as their players begin preseason practices Wednesday.

But because of NFL policy, the Raiders cannot promote their presence. No billboards. No newspaper ads or radio commercials. Las Vegas media outlets can cover camp, but the team is not allowed to invite L.A. or Orange County-based media outlets. Nor will practices be open to fans, though some VIPs, select season-ticket holders, sponsors and invited guests will be allowed into the Jack Hammett Sports Complex.

Since permanently relocating from St. Louis and San Diego, respectively, the Rams and Chargers share territorial marketing rights to the area.

“Every club has an exclusive home territory extending 75 miles in all directions from the exterior corporate borders of the city for which it holds a franchise,” per league policy. “If another club holds its preseason training camp within that exclusive territory then it cannot be marketed locally.”

Interestingly, there will be five NFL teams within 100 miles of each other during camp. The New Orleans Saints are holding theirs at UC Irvine, which hosted the Rams from 2016 to 2019 and 2021 to 2023. The Saints needed a new location during construction of a new cafeteria at their team complex. The Rams (Loyola Marymount), Chargers (El Segundo) and Dallas Cowboys (Oxnard) will be in L.A. County.

The Cowboys have been in Oxnard off and on since 2001, before the Rams and Chargers returned to the region, and were essentially grandfathered in with clearance for marketing and open practices.

Raiders owner Mark Davis shrugs off the territorial limitations for his team, saying the bigger point was being able to bond as a team, and that the club also considered its former training camp home in Napa.

“It would be nice if all the fans could be there, but, whatever,” Davis told ESPN. “The Chargers and Rams have that ability.”

First-year Raiders general manager Tom Telesco, who spent the previous 11 years as GM of the Chargers, helped facilitate the move to Costa Mesa.

“It’s a great setup, but it’s not all on one campus,” Davis said. “That’s something we’ve always had for our campuses. We’ve pretty much always had the hotels and the fields together, so this is a little bit of a work-around. But it’s going to be fantastic.”

Relocating camp from the team headquarters in Henderson, Nevada, represents a little bit of a homecoming for Coach Antonio Pierce.

He grew up a Raiders fan in nearby Compton.

“When the plane hit the tarmac, I smiled,” Pierce said. “It felt good to be home. I’m excited for our players to be here and enjoy some nice weather and be able to get away for a little bit.”

Pierce said the temperature was about 105 degrees when he left Las Vegas, about 30 degrees hotter than in Costa Mesa. The mild temperatures allow the Raiders to schedule practices at more advantageous times, and the team will work out at night when it returns to Nevada in mid-August.

This is Pierce’s first camp as a head coach, having been hired in the offseason after going 5-4 as the interim coach last season.

Pierce has some decisions to make, most notably at quarterback between Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew. He said there was no timeline on when to pick a starter, and both QBs are opening camp on essentially equal footing.

But this is what Pierce has dreamed of – being the one in charge.

He said not having fans and being away from family responsibilities for a couple of weeks allows the players to focus on the job at hand.

“I think it would be really critical for our team to become the tightest unit possible,” Pierce said. “It’s all peaches and cream now. The sun’s bright. There are going to be some dark moments and dark days, and we’re going to have to be ready to go through some adversity together.”

Such adversity is hard to imagine just a short drive away during a laid-back Tuesday morning at Killarney’s. Raiders memorabilia is scattered throughout the pub, including a signed photo of Hall of Fame coach Tom Flores after the Super Bowl victory in the 1983 season and the 1984 schedule that proclaims “The World Champion Los Angeles Raiders.”

The Raiders left Southern California 30 years ago, but to some, they aren’t truly gone.

That’s evident on game days when the pub opens its doors at 8 a.m. There will be a line outside by 7:30 if the Raiders are playing one of the early games. All the seats are gone by 10 for an afternoon kickoff.

“I think for a lot of these people it’s a home away from home,” Dale said. “It’s a mini Black Hole. The Raiders have one of those fan bases that’s definitely a head above everyone else. It’s a cult following in a sense, but very proud to be Raiders fans.”

The city has changed. It will continue to change. But their commitment to the community will remain intact.

“We walk our streets. We eat in our community. We spread love. We shed tears in our community,” said Peters, a vice president of the Fam1st Family Foundation. “We just have to be present. Right now, we’re going through a rough time in the Bay Area. These kids need consistency. These kids need a shoulder to lean on. They need somebody who they know will be able to listen.”

Led by Johnson, Peters and Marshawn Lynch, a trio of Oakland-raised NFL players, the Fam 1st Family Foundation held its latest summer football camp Saturday at Oakland Technical High School. According to Johnson, the foundation’s president, this marks the 18th camp the foundation has put on, the first coming during Lynch’s rookie season in the NFL.

“We’ve been blessed to be able to do this,” Johnson said, “to be able to do the things necessary to keep it going, to be able to provide so many smiles to all these different kids and allow them to break bread through the game of football.”

Added rapper Mistah F.A.B.: “This is what should be the prerequisite for any individual that reaches a certain level of success or public status as an influencer — to come in and show kids that if you do get to that next level, come back and pour into your community. Marshawn, Josh and many of the other brothers that go here are showing that. They’re reflections of people who have dedicated themselves to their community.”

Several notable names have attended these camps over the years, a list that includes the Steelers’ Najee Harris, the Texans’ Joe Mixon; former 49ers receiver DiAndre Campbell; and former Giants safety Ryan Murphy. Peters, now a Las Vegas Raiders cornerback, was part of the very first camp.

According to Johnson, the 38-year-old Baltimore Ravens quarterback, there was an uptick in Oakland-area kids who attended college in the first four years of the camp’s existence. Johnson attributes that phenomenon to, again, consistency. Along with the camp, Fam 1st Family Foundation also operates the West Oakland Youth Center, which provides programs such as architecture, coding music and more.

“That’s a small part of how we make sure the community knows there’s life over here,” Peters said. “We have different types of programs to let the kids know that you don’t have to just be an athlete. … It’s just making sure that the kids know they have access to be able to do something different.”

“This is my family, and with family, you can pretend to care, but you can’t pretend to show up. Your presence is needed, it’s wanted and it’s appreciated,” Mistah F.A.B. said. “It adds to the power of kids going back and telling their friends, ‘Oh, you missed it. Marshawn was there. Andre Ward was there. Josh Johnson was there. Mistah F.A.B. was there.’ We just add to that. What that does is that continues to keep blowing you up so more kids come. When more kids attend, with strength in numbers, we’re able to amplify that, and that ensures the longevity and continuance of what we’re doing.”

The foundation’s latest camp comes at a time when Oakland is just months away from losing its third major professional sports team in a six-year span. The Warriors moved to San Francisco. The Raiders left for Las Vegas. In several months, the A’s will play their final game at the Oakland Coliseum before departing for Sacramento.

“These moments are going to stick out a little bit more because all these kids have aspirations to play the game of football,” Johnson said. “I remember when I was younger, being able to make that connection. ‘The 49ers are here. The Raiders are here.’ It gave you something to keep watering that seed in your mind. Right now, that’s not the case.”

To Johnson and Peters, the A’s, Raiders and Warriors weren’t just sports teams but vessels of community. While Fam 1st may not be able to solely replace the presence of Oakland’s big three, Johnson and Peters hope their foundation can continue inspiring the next generation in Oakland — a generation they hope will give back in its own way.

“We don’t have a lot left,” said boxer Andre Ward. “Marshawn could do this anywhere in the world and it would be successful, but he always comes back home. It’s a powerful reminder for these kids and people like myself to make sure that we’re constantly giving back.”