Jalen Richard on Raiders first step inside Allegiant Stadium: “I’m definitely not going to take any of this for granted”
It’s impossible to not be impressed by the Raiders new palace, Allegiant Stadium. Just walking up to it, it’s a beautiful stadium. Today, however, we’d get to see what lies inside of it.
This is something the players have been anticipating since they got to Las Vegas in late July. They got that chance Friday with their scrimmage on the Allegiant stadium field. I detailed the day with videos and pictures here.
“I haven’t seen a stadium that looks like this ever,” said running back Jalen Richard after the team’s scrimmage “It’s blacked out, looks like a nice limousine or blacked out H2 Hummer. It just looks nice and big and aggressive. Then you get inside and it’s just beautiful. . . Everything was nice and finished well, so I’m excited.”
Between warmups and the scrimmage, Mark Davis made a speech to the team.
“Greetings. Welcome to the Death Star, where our opponent’s dreams come to die. My father always said that the greatness of the Raiders is in its future. Well today that future really starts. This magnificent stadium was built on the backs of thousands of players, coaches, administrators, and fans, who for the past 60 years have proudly worn the Silver and Black. This is our field of dreams. This is our house. The stadium’s personality will be defined by you, so take pride every time you step on this field wearing those famed black jerseys and silver helmets. You are the Raiders. There will be many personal accomplishments out here on this field. Someone on this field today will make the first tackle; somebody will score the first touchdown, and somebody will make the first interception, but most importantly it is what we do as a team. So, I will leave you with three words, ‘Just Win Baby.’ Welcome home.”
It took everything in the players’ power to block out the majesty of the stadium around them and just focus on practice.
“They were star struck,” Jon Gruden said of the players.
“The bright lights, the natural grass in a dome stadium, the spectacular locker room, which you can’t see on TV. It’s a state of the art facility. It’s got everything you can imagine and I can’t wait to share it with our fans. . . If you ask me it’s the coolest place I’ve seen.”
After practice, there was one player still walking the perimeter of the field, just taking it in. It was Jalen Richard, who says he will often walk around the practice field after practice, but this time was very different.
“Walking is something I kind of took on every day after practice, just to give me a couple walks around the field to cool down and just reminisce and think about how far I’ve come,” said Richard, a former undrafted tryout player, now in his fifth NFL season. “Definitely today I was thinking about that when I was walking around the field doing my usual walk after practice. Just looking around going ‘man, from Lousiana, then I go to Southern Miss and we had some good facilities, but as soon as I left they revamped everything, like new weight rooms and new everything and I get to Oakland and this is like gold in Oakland, right? Then guys from other teams come in and they’re like ‘Uhh, this is kind of like, uh, mediocre a little bit’ you know what I mean, to what we have now I’m definitely not going to take any of this for granted and do whatever I can to help us win.”
The message Jon Gruden gave the team, according to center Rodney Hudson, was just to enjoy it.
“I think mostly just enjoying the moment with the excitement, taking advantage of it,” said Hudson. “And just playing football. I think all of us are happy to be back and playing, especially in the new stadium and stuff. Just enjoying it and enjoying each other and just try to be able to win.”
