Between his stints with the Buccaneers and the Raiders, Jon Gruden worked at ESPN, on Monday Night Football. On the heels of taking his latest job with Barstool Sports, Gruden said he nearly took another job, at the University of Tennessee.
“My wife cheered at Tennessee,” Gruden said on Pardon My Take, via On3.com. “I love Tennessee. I was a graduate coach there, and I did talk to the Athletic Director,” Jon Gruden said. “And I don’t look up to anybody more than I look up to Peyton Manning and Kenny Chesney. Those are two of my favorite Tennessee guys. And I was very interested in doing it.”
But he didn’t.
“At that time I was having so much fun on Monday Night Football with Mike Tirico, I couldn’t take any other job,” Gruden said.. “To be in the thought process is always exciting and hell, Tennessee was one that is really close to my heart. I almost did consider pulling the trigger there.”
He didn’t specify the year, but as noted by On3.com, Tirico and Gruden worked together from 2011 and 2014.
Here’s a PFT item from 2012, in which Gruden’s agent tried to shoot down rumors of Gruden going to Tennessee. That came between the Derek Dooley and Butch Jones regimes. So it all fits.
It’s now clear, 12 years later, that it was much more than rumors, much more than the Tennessee A.D. doing “due diligence” and finding out Gruden wasn’t interested.
He was. Despite what his agent said.
It’s no surprise. But it’s a reminder that, in this business, bullshit is everywhere. It’s never wise to take anything at face value — especially not a denial of interest in a new job.
The Buccaneers claimed safety Mike Edwards off waivers Thursday, the team announced. Tampa Bay waived cornerback Keenan Isaac in a corresponding move.
Edwards was cut by the Titans after only a week and without playing a game. He was inactive for the team’s game against the Chargers this past Sunday.
The Bills released Edwards after he played in three games earlier this season, seeing action on seven defensive snaps and 13 on special teams. He totaled one tackle.
The Bucs made Edwards a third-round pick in 2019, and he spent his first four NFL seasons with the Buccaneers.
In his NFL career, Edwards has played 78 games, including 28 starts.
NFL agitator Jon Gruden has taken a job with one of the NFL’s biggest agitators in all of media.
Gruden has signed a multi-year deal with Barstool Sports.
The Super Bowl XXXVII-winning coach of the Buccaneers was traded to Tampa by the Raiders before the 2002 season. He joined ESPN after being fired by the Bucs in early 2009.
Gruden returned to the Raiders in 2018. In 2021, he was essentially forced to resign by the selective leaking of supposedly confidential emails harvested in the Washington investigation.
Yes, the outcome was unavoidable given the contents of the emails. No, that doesn’t make the seemingly deliberate effort to take him out during a season right.
A lawsuit against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell was quickly filed. More than three years later, it remains stuck on the question of whether the litigation should unfold in open court or in the NFL’s secret, rigged, kangaroo court of arbitration.
Recently, Gruden secured a rehearing of the matter before the full Nevada Supreme Court. If he prevails on the issue, the NFL undoubtedly will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, further delaying the case.
Barstool occupies a separate spot on the NFL’s unofficial shit list. Founder Dave Portnoy and others conducted a sit-in at the lobby of the league office after Tom Brady was suspended for #DeflateGate. The NFL has since tried (at times successfully) to keep Barstool Sports personalities out of NFL events.
Earlier this year, Gruden launched a YouTube channel. It has done well. He’s entertaining and informative.
Just like his lawsuit will be, if (as we hope) it ends up playing out in court.
The bye week couldn’t have come at a better time for the Buccaneers.
They’re banged up. Banged up so badly that the mandatory four-day break during the bye week has become a six-day respite.
In his weekly appearance on WFLA-TV (via JoeBucsFan.com), coach Todd Bowles said that he scrapped two days of practices due to the health of the team.
“We got to get healthy first,” Bowles said. “I don’t think we could practice if we were to practice on Wednesday, we were probably walking through, so it didn’t make any sense.”
The Buccaneers had 13 players on the injury report entering their Week 10 loss to the 49ers. They also have 10 players on injured reserve.
After a 3-1 start, Tampa Bay has lost five of six games. The good news is that the Bucs have three winnable games after the bye, against the Giants, Panthers, and Raiders. After a visit to the Chargers, the Bucs face the Cowboys, Panthers, and Saints.
They should win at least five if not six of the final seven. If they can get healthy enough to put their best players on the field.
A 5-2 finish would get them to 9-8, which could be enough to get a wild-card berth. If they go 6-1, a 10-7 finish should get them there.
Two coaches have already been fired, from the Jets and the Saints. Between now and the end of the season, there will be more.
So how many jobs will become vacant?
The current hot spots are obvious. In Dallas, coach Mike McCarthy’s contract is ending. He has done nothing this year that would merit a new one.
The Jaguars have woefully underperformed, especially after owner Shad Khan said in August that it’s the best Jacksonville team ever assembled. And the Raiders and Bears have made significant in-season changes that could be a stopover toward a cleaning house after the season, if not sooner.
Giants owner John Mara has said he doesn’t anticipate making any changes after the season. Changes could nevertheless be made.
If the Buccaneers continue to underperform, could Todd Bowles be in trouble? Maybe, if ownership thinks it can lure Bill Belichick to town, five years after Tom Brady went to Tampa.
If the Colts don’t make it to the playoffs, what will Jim Irsay do?
Then there’s the ever-present possibility for a surprise. Could Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who declared the team to be Super Bowl ready before the season, clean house if they miss the playoffs — even with coach Mike McDaniel getting an extension in the offseason? Could Brian Callahan be one and done in Tennessee? Jerod Mayo in New England?
Then there’s always the possibility of a resignation or retirement.
Last year, there were eight vacancies — 25 percent of the entire league. This year, there could be another eight openings.
Whatever the number, it’ll always happen. It’s the quickest way for a bad team to become a good team, especially since the salary cap restricts what a team can do to improve.
