Would Jon Gruden give up his coveted, cushy Monday Night Football job to Coach the Oakland Raiders again? He has a pretty sweet gig giving us the NFL version of “The Lego Movie” theme song “Everything is Awesome.” And truly every NFL player seems to be pretty awesome in the eyes of Gruden. So if he were to go back to Oakland, where it’s a complete mess, how would he handle it?
We can speculate on that later. For now, let’s talk about how desperate the Raiders are to bring Jon Gruden back.
Fox Sports Jay Glazer said this morning on FOX NFL Kickoff:
“last week, when they were in London, Mark Davis was openly telling people how much he would love for Jon Gruden to be there, even though Dennis Allen was still the head coach.”
And here’s NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport on the Raiders coaching situation:
“they will target Jon Gruden. They want a rockstar coach and of course Jon Gruden is the most rockstar coach out there. They haven’t made contact with him yet; my understanding is they will. We know that Jon Gruden is under contract to be a broadcaster.
“I am told he can get out of that contract in order to join the Oakland Raiders this season if that is what they wanted to happen, but he will not mainly because he has made a commitment to broadcast throughout this season. Something he will consider after the season. Right now it seems they are stagnant in their coaching search trying to play out the season.”
“One name to consider: Jim Harbaugh if he does not continue with the 49ers after this season.”
Rapoport made these remarks on NFL Gameday Morning.
Jim Harbaugh? Really?
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2