Raiders' Maxx Crosby plays down coach's aside: 'I love Mike Caldwell'

Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby spoke to reporters after Sunday's game and cleared up an incident that was caught on camera during his team's 32-13 loss to the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers.

During the game, the CBS broadcast showed Crosby pushing Mike Caldwell, the Raiders' running game coordinator and linebackers coach, as he returned to the sideline.

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Crosby posted a post on X after the game addressing the situation.

“Mike Caldwell is my guy. One of the best people in the business,” he wrote. “This is a love rush, stop reaching.”

Mike Caldwell is my guy. One of the best people in the industry. This is a love rush, stop reaching. #RN4L

– Maxx Crosby (@CrosbyMaxx) October 13, 2024

He later explained his comments to a group of reporters.

“I'm not even thinking about it and then all of a sudden my phone dies while I'm sitting in the cold tub trying to get ready for next week,” Crosby said. “And people, you know how they do it, they just spin stories.

“Mike Caldwell is a great guy,” he continued. “We have a great relationship and we do this all the time. It's like, you know, people look at it like, 'Oh, they lose and then Maxx pushes him.' That's how we play football. We are grown men. We are alpha males. We don't greet each other right away.

“(Caldwell) cheered me up and I cheered him up. … We are down, but it has shown that we are not giving up. That was literally everything,” Crosby said.

The three-time Pro Bowler then said he would look into any camera and repeated, “I love Mike Caldwell.”

“That’s my guy,” he said. “That's all I'm going to say. I love him. There is literally zero (malice). It is made entirely of dust.

“The camera made it look bad. It looked like I was going to kick him out of the club, but that wasn’t the case at all.”

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Sunday's loss was the Raiders' (2-4) second straight loss.

Crosby had three tackles, two tackles for loss and a 1/2 sack, as well as two quarterback hits. He leads the Raiders with five sacks and seven tackles for loss in six games.

Las Vegas sits in last place in the AFC West and faces a difficult stretch of its schedule. The Raiders play at the Los Angeles Rams next Sunday, host the Kansas City Chiefs and then travel to Cincinnati to face the Bengals before their Week 10 bye.

(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)