LUTZ, Fla. — Jon Gruden has been out of the spotlight, seeking purpose and studying football in a large office building filled with game film since the unveiling of racist, anti-gay and misogynistic emails led to his 2021 ouster from the NFL. Nearly three years after he resigned from the Las Vegas Raiders, the Super Bowl-winning coach believes he’s ready to roam the sidelines again at a different level of the sport: college football.
Gruden opened the doors of his personal coaching headquarters to CBS Sports last week for the first interview he has granted since resigning under pressure from the fallout of those emails. The 61-year-old discussed football, his past and present, and how he believes his future could unfold in a college town. The question is whether his messy NFL exit makes him untouchable as a candidate.
When asked whether he has any remorse about what he wrote in the emails — and pressed on the subject — Gruden responded: “I’m not even, you don’t even … I’m not even going to get into whether or not. The due process will take care of itself. I haven’t even had my due process yet, so for me to sit here and say, ‘Who said what?’ You know, we’ll just go through the process and leave it at that.”
Gruden resigned in October 2021 amid his fourth season with the Raiders after The Wall Street Journal and New York Times uncovered explosive emails dating back to his time as an ESPN analyst between 2011-18. Gruden’s emails were among more than 650,000 reviewed by the NFL as it investigated workplace misconduct within Washington’s NFL franchise. In the emails, Gruden used anti-gay language and derogatory language to describe NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. He also accused Goodell of pressuring the Rams to draft Michael Sam, an openly gay player, in 2014.
In a separate 2011 email, GrudenΒ used a racially insensitive metaphor, referencing a stereotype, to describe NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith. Gruden told the Journal in 2021 that his comments were excessive; he explained that his use of the phrase was intended to describe someone he felt was dishonest, though it was widely recognized as offensive.
The well-known coach, whose celebrity grew in the broadcast booth as an analyst on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” from 2009-17, became a pariah. Since his NFL ouster, he has avoided the media. Gruden offered only an apology via written statement on the day he resigned and another during a speaking engagement at an Arkansas touchdown club in August 2022. He admitted to the crowd he was “ashamed” of the emails.
Gruden sued the NFL in November 2021 claiming Goodell and/or others on his behalf leaked Gruden’s emails to the media to get him fired. Gruden’s attorneys in late July this year filed a petition to the Nevada Supreme Court asking it reconsider a decision made by a three-justice panel that allowed the league to move the civil contract interference and conspiracy case into arbitration.Β
While Gruden awaits his “due process,” he has been content to study game film in his offices and mentor college and NFL quarterbacks who reach out for guidance. He’s also preparing to become a head coach again — and the college game has capturedΒ his interest.
“Yeah, I’m interested in coaching,” Gruden said. “My dad was a college coach, I was a college coach at Pitt, my wife was a cheerleader at Tennessee when I met her. Hell yeah, I’m interested in coaching. I know I can help a team, I know I can help young players get better, and I know I can hire a good staff, and that’s the only thing I can guarantee. But yeah, I’m very interested in coaching at any level, period.”
CBS Sports spoke with several athletic directors and coaching agents to gauge whether Gruden could get an opportunity to be a college head coach. Some ADs hesitated to say whether they would interview him but all agreed Gruden would likely receive interest from some schools.
“If I was in the market right now, would I interview Jon Gruden? Yeah, probably,” an athletic director at the Group of Five level admitted under the condition of anonymity. “There’d be no reason not to. Now, if I was at Florida, no, I’m not doing that. It’s not the right fit, right time. A lot of that depends on the right job. One of the things with a Group of Five [school] is you can take a more calculated risk.”
To that end, an SEC school administrator called Gruden “untouchable” as a coaching candidate.
During his years off the sideline at ESPN, Gruden was frequently discussed as a candidate for top jobs in the NFL and college, notably being linked to vacancies at Tennessee. He may need to temper expectations now.Β
Gruden still gets excited and animated when he talks football. On Monday following Week 1 of the NFL season, he was squinting while providing an impassioned breakdown of his work day at a massive 4,110-square-foot office space he purchased in 2015. The facility contains 13 rooms, organized like many coaching offices you have seen in the NFL and college football. He calls it the “Fired Football Coaches Association,” though Gruden himself was technically not fired.
His 14-hour marathon day begins with a fistful of vitamins at 4 a.m. and a cup of coffee. He then checks his mail and communicates with contacts across the NFL and college football.
“There’s a lot of guys around the league that vent, you know, after the game. Guys I support, just privately,” Gruden said. “And I just kind of try to be a positive resource and help anybody I can. And then I just basically get to my films. I study the pro game mostly.”
Gruden, who won Super Bowl XXXVII in 2022 as coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is not just sitting in front of a grease board drawing plays and pausing videos of games to burn time as a retiree. He’s preparing.Β
“I’m not in here for the hell of it,” he said.
College football is central to Gruden’s focus perhaps because an NFL return is much more difficult to imagine. The college game is changing, and Gruden is trying to learn as much as he can about the intricacies of the sport: the transfer portal, recruiting, personnel and how recruiting services analyze and assign star ratings to high school players.
He says Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe joined him for a few days in Tampa to study offenses, and on a now-erased grease board, Gruden had detailed and studied the stats of the game’s top 15 quarterbacks. During a casual conversation last Monday, he quickly references a big-time throw Texas’ Quinn Ewers made on third down against Michigan two days prior.Β
Gruden rejected college football for years. He’s listening now.
“If there’s somebody out there that thinks they need a candidate, somebody to come in there, maybe lather it up a little bit, jazz it up a little bit, I’ll be down here in Tampa,” Gruden said. “I’ll be ready to go if needed.”
No one questions Gruden’s love for football. He’s such an addict that he launched a YouTube channel, “Gruden Loves Football,” a series of videos providing football instruction and game breakdowns of NFL matchups. He also interviews stars across the league, including current New Orleans Saints QB Derek Carr, who started under Gruden on the Las Vegas Raiders.
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Author: Brandon Marcello
September 18, 2024 | 10:35 am