New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Raiders interim coach Bisaccia has CT roots
After coaching in the NFL for 20 years, New Fairfield High graduate Rich Bisaccia has been named the interim head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders following the resignation of Jon Gruden.
This will be Bisaccia’s first head coaching job in the NFL after spending nine years as Tampa Bay Buccaneers special teams coordinator (2002-10), two years as assistant head coach/special teams coordinator with the San Diego Chargers (2011-12), and five years with the Dallas Cowboys (2013-17) in the same position.
Bisaccia joined the Raiders in 2018, and will take over the team that sits in second place in the AFC West with a 3-2 record.
“It is unbelievable to say that he is now an NFL head coach,” Danbury athletic director and former New Milford football coach Chip Salvestrini said. “He has the stuff, now this is his opportunity, and we’re hopeful that he succeeds at this position. He’s living with house money as the interim head coach, so it’s his to win or his to lose, is how I’m looking at it.”
Salvestrini coached at New Milford when Bisaccia was a safety for New Fairfield, and eventually helped with his college recruiting process.
“In my time, Rich was an athlete at New Fairfield,” Salvestrini said. “I helped recruit him to go play at Yankton College in South Dakota, where I played.”
Bisaccia eventually transferred from Yankton to Wayne State College, where he would wind up getting his first coaching job.
“When he was having trouble at the beginning with coaching at the college level, we would talk a lot,” Salvestrini said. “He did everything to get where he is. It wasn’t easy for him, I remember him telling me
he would just eat a lot of macaroni because there was not a lot of money in it back then. Not a lot of prestige in coaching.”
Bisaccia was a collegiate football coach for 18 years at various schools, including Wayne State, South Carolina, Clemson and Mississippi before beginning
his NFL coaching career.
Now at the age of 61, the decades of dedication and passion for football have presented Bisaccia with the opportunity of a lifetime.
“He was always right there; friends of his always felt he was meant to be a head coach,” Salvestrini said. “His Xs and Os like everyone else will speak for themselves, but I’m very proud of what he has
accomplished in terms of being a quality person and his work ethic.”
His opportunity comes after Gruden resigned Monday following reports that he wrote emails in which he made racist, homophobic and sexist comments.
Bisaccia’s first game as an NFL head coach will come against the Denver Broncos on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. on CBS.