Report: Jon Gruden Being Pursued by Oakland Raiders
By Josh Hill
It’s been over ten years since we’ve seen the likes of Jon Gruden in the iconic silver and black, but we may not have to wait much longer. Like George Lucas went back to the Star Wars well some ten years after Return of the Jedi, the Oakland Raiders are plucking on our nostalgia stings and are reportedly in talks to bring back Chucky to the Bay Area.
. @Hub_Arkush of @ProFootballWkly just told @Boers_Bernstein that Jon Gruden and the #Raiders are in talks to bring him back to Oakland.
— Dan Bernstein (@dan_bernstein) December 4, 2012
Before we get all excited we have to remember who we are dealing with. After all the years of that scowl and the gruesome profanity, it turns out Jon Gruden is just as much of a coaching diva as the next guy. From his dangling of the University of Tennessee late last month to his constant plea that he’s fully committed to his ESPN gig, we really don’t know what to believe when it comes to Gruden.
Not helping the matter is still that Nick Saban debacle some years ago where it turns out that no really means hell yes.
Over in Oakland, things haven’t been the same since Gruden left in 2002 to join the Buccaneers (well, technically he was traded there). Sure the Raiders made the Super Bowl that year but they have been a mess every since, and owner Mark Davis has simply had enough. After a loss in Week 12 to the Bengals, Davis admitted he and head coach Dennis Allen got into an argument.
“I wouldn’t say it was heated; the most heated I got was when we first got on the plane and I told him it’s not good enough.” Daivs said. “I told him not long after we boarded: ‘It’s not good enough.’ I admit I was pissed off.”
Pissed off used to be the only expression Jon Gruden had before being handed a microphone softened him up. The only question is will Gruden be the same coach he was before his job at ESPN? To be a stickler, Gruden wasn’t a Hall of Fame coach with the Buccaneers or the Raiders, but he wasn’t Dennis Allen either.
The hope is that Gruden has had some time to ferment and that when he returns to the sidelines, he’ll be an even more wiser and better coach than he was before. For Raiders fans — or fans of whatever team he is hired by — hopefully the wisdom comes hand in hand with the scowl we’ve all come to love.