A few days ago, as he was preparing for his final ESPN Monday Night Football game, Jon Gruden and many football fans learned that he would be leaving the broadcasting booth and go back to becoming a Head coach.
From 1998-2001 Gruden was the head coach of the Oakland Raiders. You may remember the “Tuck Rule” game between the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders was on January 19, 2001. It was the AFC Championship game. Throughout the game, Oakland Raiders had the lead. Then, the “Tuck Rule” happened and ultimately the Patriots won the game. That bizarre rule ended Gruden’s head coaching job with Oakland. As a head coach in Oakland, he had a regular season record of 64-38 and 2-2 in the postseason.
The following season in 2002, Gruden was hired as head coach of the struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Outgoing Tony Dungy took the job with the Indianapolis Colts. In his first season in Tampa Bay, Jon Gruden took the Buccaneers to a 12-4 record a trip to the playoffs. In the NFC bracket, they won the NFC South division, locked in as the 2nd seed, and a bye-week advancing to the NFC Divisional round. In the NFC Divisional round, they won against the San Francisco 49ers 31-6. In the final game before the Super Bowl, the Bucs had to go through the number 1 seed Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles were no match for the Buccaneers as Tampa won 27-10. In Super Bowl 37, Jon Gruden faced his former team…the Oakland Raiders. To show Oakland that they were wrong for them to cut him, he stomped all over the Raiders as Tampa Bay defeated Oakland 48-21. For the next seven years, Gruden stayed and tried to bring the Buccaneers back to the Super Bowl. But, in 2009, he decided to hang up the visor and have a career change.
After walking away from coaching, he decided to go into broadcasting working with ESPN, the World wide leader in sports.” During the NFL season, Gruden became a color commentator for Monday Night Football. During the off-season, Gruden ran his Quarterback Camp as he scouts the latest college quarterbacks moving to the NFL. While working with ESPN, he was still in the head coaching pool looking for the right moment to get back in. Now, in 2018, Gruden has a new team to call home.
On January 9, 2018, John Gruden and the Oakland Raiders will hold a press conference to formally introduce Jon Gruden as the next head coach.