You'll never guess who Maxx Crosby wants to win the Super Bowl.
The Las Vegas Raiders pass rusher, who has watched his team lose 80% of his career games against the Kansas City Chiefs, says he wants his AFC West rivals to take home yet another Lombardi Trophy.
Wait, what?!
Crosby has thought this through, though. His motivations in this particular case are completely mercenary.
"Selfishly, I want the Chiefs to win so we can be the ones to take them down and take them off that pedestal," Crosby told NFL Network's Andrew Siciliano and Brian Baldinger on Wednesday.
Crosby has been a thorn in Kansas City's side since arriving in the NFL in 2019, racking up five sacks in his 10 games against them, including four over the past two seasons, plus several big hits on Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
This season the Raiders even upset the Chiefs in Kansas City on Christmas Day, too, but they've gone only 2-8 overall in Crosby's career.
Paying deference to the Chiefs and all their accomplishments over the past several years, Crosby nonetheless said if the Raiders want to be the champs, they've got to beat the champs.
"I take it really personal," Crosby said. "I've got the ultimate respect for Mahomes and Chris Jones and all those guys, but they're the ones standing in our way. So, we're looking forward to seeing them again next season."
Next season will continue with Antonio Pierce as head coach after he took over for Josh McDaniels midway through the 2023 season. The Raiders went 3-5 with McDaniels but 5-4 under Pierce, making a brief run at the playoffs and playing the Chiefs tough down the stretch.
Crosby said the team is backing Pierce, who won over the locker room during a tough time last season.
"So when he got announced as the head coach, he came in, he kept it straightforward, (saying) this is how we're going to win, this is how we're going to play, it's going to sound different, it's going to look different, and everybody bought in to it, and that's the product that everybody got to see," he said.
If the Raiders are going to be able to consistently beat the likes of the Chiefs and rise to the top of the AFC, Crosby believes there has to be complete buy-in to the new Raiders Way.
"I want everyone to walk in this building excited to come out here and get to work," Crosby said. "And we're going to have fun. We're going to obviously work hard, but we're going to have fun while we do it. That's what being a Raider is, we're going to do it our way. There (are) 31 teams, there's one Raiders, and we're going to do it our way, and we're going to embrace that."
