Jon Gruden Can’t Wait to Get Back to Coaching; Agrees to Monday Night Football Extension
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Gruden, pictured above, with what he thought was a New York Jets helmet.
Former Super Bowl-winning coach Jon Gruden has agreed to remain with ESPN as an analyst on its “Monday Night Football” telecasts, the network announced Monday after negotiating a deal to allow Gruden to coach football in 2010.
It had been widely speculated that Gruden would return to coaching next season but ESPN was not yet ready to let go of their third best announcer in the booth.
ESPN issued a written announcement saying that Gruden “has agreed to an exclusive multi-year agreement with the company and any NFL team he wishes to coach” and “has made a commitment to remain with ESPN on all days that aren’t a Sunday which will be when he is coaching an NFL football team.”
“Working with Mike [Tirico], Jaws [Ron Jaworski] and our entire Monday Night Football team is the most fun I have had since I was coaching football, and I am fired up to make this long-term commitment to ESPN and the team I coach next season,” Gruden said in a written statement released by the network. “Monday Night Football is special and I look forward to remaining a part of it and continuing to call these great games along with the games I coach,” Gruden added to the speculation of where he would land, besides ESPN, by concluding his statement with, “Hey Buffalo, Bristol is only about a six hour drive!” fueling the rumors that he planned to throw his hat into the ring to coach the Buffalo Bills.
Gruden, fired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Jan. 16, was the winningest coach in Bucs history (60-57 in seven seasons) and led Tampa Bay to victory in Super Bowl XXXVII leading many to question why Gruden didn’t continue to coach the team when he was hired to announce Monday Night Football games in May of 2009. He also has coached the Oakland Raiders.
Gruden’s name has been mentioned in connection with a number of potential coaching vacancies, both in the NFL and college football. The speculation was heightened when Gruden continued to make remarks during broadcasts of the Monday Night Football games about players and coaches that he’d love to have on a team that he coached. “I can’t wait to hire Fangio away from these Ravens. That guy is one helluva football coach.” Gruden said of Baltimore Ravens’ Linebackers Coach Vic Vangio
Gruden is reportedly "pretty gosh darned excited" about coaching next season along with announcing football games for ESPN.
during a recent broadcast which followed a remark Gruden made earlier in the year about Minnesota Viking’s Tight End Visanthe Shiancoe when he said, “A guy like Shiancoe is exactly the kind of tough sonofabitch I will be trading for when I am coaching again next season.”
“Jon has truly reinvented himself, from a Super Bowl-winning head coach to one of the foremost NFL analysts in the business who also is an outstanding football coach, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive now that he will be coaching again,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president of production. “We are thrilled with his commitment to ESPN, which ensures that Jon will continue on ‘Monday Night Football’ with Mike and Jaws, and look forward to having him back on the Mondays after he coaches on Sundays.”
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November 19, 2009 at 3:52 am
Jon Gruden could “coach” my “team” any day of the week. ROWR!
November 19, 2009 at 5:59 am
Jon Gruden would double team you like a broadcaster also coaching a football team at the same time.
November 19, 2009 at 6:02 am
Did you know John Gruden can recite verbatim seventeen Shakespeare plays and also, he fought a bear and then made sweet passionate love with it?
November 19, 2009 at 8:00 am
None of these things are true. What is true is Jon Gruden looks a lot like Chucky from Child’s Play:
January 16, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Yeah, I like Jon Gruden. He did a good job in TB and he’s CUTE to boot!
Can’t wait to see where he ends up. He sorta reminds me of John Madden. Same tell-it-like-it-is guy that Madden was/is. I learned more from John Madden’s teleprompter and explanations about football than ANYWHERE else ever.
January 29, 2010 at 11:52 pm
@Apopleptic Fittz: I am an employee of a major league stadium (would rather not say which, or which sport(s)), and my co-workers and I routinely refer to Gruden as Chucky. Kind of like how, in the ’80’s, everyone referred to a certain quarterback as “Horseface” and we all knew who that was. Chucky is Gruden’s name now in our group.
@DeeWA2009: You must be new to football. All Chucky does is say how some guy is the best at (insert what the guy just did on that last play here), except when the player does something stupid like fumble; then he’s the worst ever. Chucky just follows the moment. He adds no insight. Madden is a joke in football fan circles for stating the obvious, so if you think Chucky is like Madden, that’s a bad omen, but very true, for Chucky.
As for Buffalo being six hours from Bristol, what the hell are you driving, author–Dr. Emmett Brown’s DeLorean?! You gotta go across the New York State Thruway (I-90) to Albany; that’s six hours right there. Then another three down to NYC on the Thruway (I-87); then over to Connecticut.