John Herrera is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

executive who, for much of his career, was a Senior Executive with the Oakland Raiders. Herrera's father owned a Buick dealership in Oakland and knew Raiders owner Al Davis as a business acquaintance. Herrera's father arranged for his son to have an interview and Herrera became a Raiders ballboy starting in 1963 while still in high school. Herrera joined the team full-time in 1967 in the business and public relations departments. Following that, Herrera spent four years working for a record company owned by United Artists as well as a stint working for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

as a scout. In 1976, NFL expansion team

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The cl ...

hired Herrera as a scout. While with the Buccaneers organization, Herrera met future NFL executive

Tim Ruskell Tim Ruskell (born October 1956) is an American football executive. He last served as the General Manager of the Orlando Apollos, one of the eight charter teams was the Alliance of American Football. Ruskell has previously worked for the NFL, incl ...

while Ruskell was working at a record store in Tampa. At Herrera's invitation, Ruskell became a ball boy and visiting locker room manager for the Buccaneers. In 1978, Herrera rejoined the Raiders as Director of Public Relations and celebrated a Super Bowl victory with the team in 1981. Herrera left the Raiders in 1982 to become Director of Player-Personnel for the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first seas ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

and later that year was named General Manager of the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in ...

. Herrera returned to the Raiders in 1985 with the title "Senior Executive." His duties as Senior Executive have included working as the team's travel and camp coordinator and serving as the Raiders chief negotiator during their failed move to

Irwindale, California Irwindale is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 1,422 at the 2010 census, down from 1,446 at the 2000 census. The ZIP Codes serving the area are 91010, which is shared with Duarte, 91702, w ...

. Herrera left the Raiders in 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herrera, John Oakland Raiders executives Tampa Bay Buccaneers personnel Living people Year of birth missing (living people)