Raiders hiring Pete Carroll, 73, is right call, apparently led by Tom Brady

It wasn’t long into yet another Raiders introductory press conference when new general manager John Spytek cited the influence of high school coach Bill Young, who taught him the fundamentals of program-building, toughness and how to compete.

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.