Jon Gruden wants to call NFL games instead of analyzing them.<\/p>\n
JoeBucsFan.com, which first reported the comments<\/a>, indicated this isn\u2019t just Gruden musing out loud, writing that he\u2019s \u201cnot joking about a new broadcast role\u201d and that a more formal announcement could be coming soon.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a broadcaster for nine years; hell\u2019s bells,\u201d Gruden said on The Ira Kaufman Podcast.<\/a> \u201cI want to be play-by-play. You know, Frank Gifford, he transitioned into the play-by-play role. I would like to transition. I had nine years of watching these guys \u2014\u00a0 [Mike] Tirico. And I\u2019d like to give that a shot, man.\u201d<\/p>\n The nine years Gruden is referring to were spent as Monday Night Football\u2019s color analyst, split between his tenure with the Buccaneers and his second run coaching the Raiders. That job, and the coaching job that followed it, both trace back to the same event. Gruden resigned as Raiders coach<\/a> in October 2021, days after the Wall Street Journal<\/a> and New York Times published emails he\u2019d sent between 2011-18, while working as an ESPN analyst, containing racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language<\/a>, including remarks about former NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith<\/a> and disparaging comments following Michael Sam\u2019s 2014 draft selection as the NFL\u2019s first openly gay drafted player.<\/p>\n Gruden later admitted the emails were wrong but also placed some blame on ESPN,<\/a> saying the network added to a \u201cmisunderstanding\u201d about his character.<\/p>\n The emails surfaced as part of a much larger haul, as the NFL had collected more than 650,000 emails during its investigation into workplace culture within the Washington Commanders organization, and Gruden\u2019s were among the small fraction<\/a> that reached the public.<\/p>\n Gruden sued the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodel<\/a>l a month after resigning, accusing the league of a \u201cmalicious and orchestrated campaign\u201d to destroy his career by selectively leaking his emails to the Journal and Times while keeping the other 650,000 sealed.<\/p>\n The case has ground through Nevada\u2019s court system for four years, including a stretch where the state\u2019s high court initially sided with the NFL<\/a> on moving the case into arbitration before Gruden\u2019s team sought a rehearing. Gruden scored a real legal win last year<\/a> when the state\u2019s high court ruled, 5-2, that the NFL couldn\u2019t force his case into private arbitration overseen by Goodell, the very man he\u2019s suing, calling the league\u2019s arbitration clause \u201cunconscionable\u201d as applied to a former employee. According to ESPN\u2019s reporting<\/a>, Gruden\u2019s team has since moved to depose Goodell directly, along with a list of current and former owners that includes Jerry Jones, Bob Kraft, and Mark Davis, as well as longtime league counsel Jeff Pash and former Washington executive Bruce Allen, the original recipient of the leaked emails.<\/p>\n In a world where Gruden makes sense as a play-by-play option, the networks that would seemingly hire him \u2014 CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, Amazon \u2014 all pay the NFL for broadcast rights and answer to Goodell\u2019s league office. Gruden has spent the years since his resignation building an audience outside that system instead, most recently through a Barstool Sports deal that grew out of his YouTube channel. He\u2019s also kept angling for a way back into coaching rather than broadcasting, floating himself as a candidate for NFL openings that never materialized and telling audiences he\u2019d \u201cdie to coach in the SEC\u201d if a major program came calling.<\/p>\n Gruden has spent the years since his resignation building an audience outside that system instead, most recently through a Barstool Sports deal that grew out of his YouTube channel. He\u2019s also kept angling for a way back into coaching rather than broadcasting, floating himself as a candidate for NFL openings that never materialized and telling audiences he\u2019d \u201cdie to coach in the SEC\u201d if a major program came calling.<\/p>\n Gruden has spent the years since his resignation trying to route around that reality rather than resolve it.\u00a0But in the last year, Gruden has had a cultural renaissance, parlaying a successful YouTube channel into a gig with Barstool Sports.<\/a> After his name came and went as an outside candidate to potentially return to the NFL sidelines, he has been publicly politicking for a chance at a major college football job, saying he would \u201cdie to coach in the SEC<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Play-by-play is also a different discipline than the one Gruden actually built his reputation on. Nine years as an analyst is nine years spent reacting to a game already being narrated by someone else, not carrying the broadcast himself.<\/p>\n If anyone is going to find out whether Gruden can do it, it probably won\u2019t be a rights holder tied to the NFL. A mid-tier college broadcast, somewhere outside Goodell\u2019s orbit, is a far more realistic proving ground \u2014 and, given how much attention Gruden still generates regardless of the outcome, likely a more watchable one, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jon Gruden wants to call NFL games instead of analyzing them. 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