Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Josh McDaniels gets the ultimate home game in Canton for Raiders debut

Raiders kick off 2022-2023 NFL season with Hall of Game in McDaniels’ high school stadium

2022 July 30: Raiders Training Camp

Steve Marcus/AP

Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels talks with wide receiver Keelan Cole (84) during NFL football training camp Saturday, July 30, 2022, in Henderson, Nev.

2022 July 30: Raiders Training Camp

Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver DJ Turner (19) carries the ball during NFL football training camp Saturday, July 30, 2022, in Henderson, Nev. Launch slideshow »

The last time Josh McDaniels served as a head coach in an NFL game was more than 11 years ago amid freezing, blustery conditions at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. McDaniels could never get his Denver Broncos going on the afternoon of Dec. 5, 2010, losing 10-6 to the Chiefs to lead to his midseason firing a day later.

The now 46-year-old’s second chance starts tonight in a setting that will be warmer in multiple ways. McDaniels, hired as the Las Vegas Raiders’ head coach in January, makes his Silver and Black debut in a preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 5 p.m. kickoff at the stadium of his childhood.

Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, in addition to hosting the annual Hall of Fame Game to start the NFL preseason, is the home field of the Canton McKinley High School football team. Josh McDaniels was 5 years old when his father, Thom McDaniels, took over as the Bulldogs’ head coach. Thom stuck at McKinley for 15 years, including from 1992 to 1994 when Josh was his star quarterback and kicker.

“It was a great place to be a young boy that loved football and what a blessing that I have an opportunity to come back there and do it,” Josh McDaniels said earlier this week. “I never dreamed that this would have happened.”

Canton McKinley is no ordinary high school when it comes to football, as it’s one of the most notable programs in the country. When the father-son duo was around, the Bulldogs regularly packed the then-capacity of 15,000 fans at Hall of Fame Stadium (then known as Fawcett Stadium).

It’s where Josh McDaniels, in a 2009 story published in the Denver Post, said he learned how to deal with the spotlight football has put him under throughout his life. Specifically, playing at Canton McKinley taught him how to manage all the accompanying adversity and negativity.

McDaniels had to navigate a lot of adversity and negativity following his ouster from the Broncos, which came after a number of failed personnel moves he initiated and a video cheating scandal involving a member of his staff. He’s openly discussed what went wrong in Denver since coming to Las Vegas, stressing that he’s learned to treat everyone from players to team staff more respectfully and to stick to his job without meddling too much in other areas.

It’s poetic that the first place where he’ll publicly need to prove he’s moved forward is where it all began for him.

“Certainly, for me personally, going there is maybe a little bit different than some other people because of where I grew up,” McDaniels said.

For all he’s done in his professional career, including six Super Bowl titles as the New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator, McDaniels has never been in a professional game back in Canton. The then-St. Louis Rams were slated to play in the 2011 Hall of Fame Game in the one season where McDaniels was their offensive coordinator, but a lockout canceled the planned meeting with the Chicago Bears.

He’s spoken of how excited he was for the opportunity — and getting to share it with family — but has otherwise attempted to minimize attention on his homecoming. The players are aware though.

Unprompted, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr brought up McDaniels’ history in Canton when asked about the Hall of Fame Game.

“That’s his stadium,” Carr said. “I know that’s cool for him to go back.”

McDaniels has visited the Pro Football Hall of Fame next door almost as many times as he’s been in the stadium. He took a poll of the Raiders’ roster at the start of training camp asking all the players if they had ever been to the Hall of Fame and learned “a lot of them” had not.

That helped make it a priority for the Raiders to arrive in Canton with enough time for a tour. The team left Las Vegas on Tuesday, with plans to visit the Hall of Fame on Wednesday.  

 “I’ll see if I can find Ray Guy’s cleat or something like that,” punter A.J. Cole said. “I’ll see if they’ve got some cool artifacts in there. It will be cool to see that, the history and all the guys inducted.”

Cole coined himself “a sneaky museum guy” and recounted one of his best experiences was sneaking away from the team before a road game at Pittsburgh last year to visit the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum. If he doesn’t get his fill at the Pro Football Hall of Fame and decides to look into those honored regionally again this week in Canton, he’ll find more information about his head coach.   

McDaniels was inducted into the Stark County High School Football Hall of Fame in 2020, more of an honor for his local high school career than the heights he’s reached professionally. As the quarterback at Canton McKinley, McDaniels played in the 100th meeting against archrival Massillon, a 1994 showdown Sports Illustrated profiled and dubbed “the game of the century.”

Canton McKinley lost 42-41 largely because McDaniels missed an extra point in overtime, but he rebounded two weeks later to help eliminate Massillon 27-20 from the playoffs in front of 34,208 fans at the Rubber Bowl in Akron, Ohio.     

“Since I was a little kid, my only dream and goal was to play for Canton McKinley, and to play well,” McDaniels told the Canton Repository ahead of his induction in the Stark County High School Football Hall of Fame two years ago.

Coaching well will be McDaniels’ only goal once the Hall of Fame Game kicks off. Although he has not shared which players will play and which will sit, he expects an all-out effort for victory no matter who’s on the field.    

McDaniels is treating each of the Raiders’ four preseason games as important tuneups for the regular season.

“None of us have coached or played in a long time,” he said. “And so, this is not something where you just jump back on and it’s easy and it takes five minutes to get reacclimated to calling plays or getting in the huddle or playing third-down defense against real time, real speed opponents. There’s a lot to be gained for us.”

He knows about making the most of opportunities provided at the Hall of Fame Stadium. McDaniels had multiple offers to play at Football Bowl Subdivision schools after his time at Canton McKinley, but they all wanted him as a kicker instead of quarterback because of his 5-foot-9 height. So, he instead went to Division III John Carroll University outside of Cleveland, less than an hour north from Canton.

That’s where he became roommates with current Raiders general manager Dave Ziegler.

Their friendship further stirred inspiration that began in childhood moments like when McDaniels would drive by the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the stadium every day to attend high school. Canton McKinley abuts the complex, and Josh’s childhood home is less than 5 miles away.  

His first head-coaching tenure in the NFL didn’t end the way he wanted. His second couldn’t be starting anywhere else he’d prefer.

“It will really be an experience,” McDaniels said. “Surreal is probably a good word for it.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or

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