You can take Jon Gruden out of the Raiders, but you can’t take the Raider out of Jon Gruden.
“I’m still a proud member of Raider Nation”, the former head coach recently said.
In his new show “Gruden Loves Football” which debuted on YouTube last week, the former head coach is focused on the entire NFL, but there is no shortage of Raiders references sprinkled throughout each episode.
“Al Davis is the greatest football mind I’ve ever been around,” said long-time Raider George Atkinson during the first episode last week, before proceeding to tell tales of the Super Bowl championships and one memorable road trip with quarterback Ken Stabler.
In a time when so many of those 1970s Raiders have passed away, it’s crucial to hear these stories from those still around. Gruden’s conversation with Atkinson delivered. It helped keep those legendary Oakland teams alive and educate some of us fans who weren’t alive in that era.
He also spoke with Derek Carr. While the focus was on the Saints and the season ahead, Gruden couldn’t resist acknowledging their run together in Las Vegas.
“We did do some shredding,” Gruden said to his former quarterback, recalling a productive offense that ranked top 10 in the entire league in points scored and yards gained in their final full season together.
When he’s not having conversations with former and current NFLers on the show, he’s thoroughly breaking down an upcoming game, which includes many unavoidable and enjoyable Raiders Easter eggs.
“I like these former Raiders just so you know,” Gruden said when talking about tight end Foster Moreau’s impact on the Saints offense during this week’s episode, which also included his analysis of former Raiders Derek Carr and Amik Roberston ahead of their respective Week 2 games.
When breaking down other players around the league, he can’t help but compare them to Raiders he coached in the past. In the first two episodes, he dropped a Charlie Garner and Sebastian Janikowski reference, two players beloved by Raider Nation.
As a fan, I love it. I might not know the random backup player he’s talking about, but when he compares him to Garner, I immediately know the type of running back this guy is.
In a tour of his office, he shows viewers his “Raider Room” which includes a shelf of practice scripts, a wall of photos, another shelf stacked with playbooks and a helmet that a frustrated Rich Gannon angrily threw one practice (what I wouldn’t give for 30 minutes in that room to see all these relics!).
Since stepping down as Raiders head coach just under three years ago due to controversial emails being leaked to the media, Gruden has quietly remained around the game as an advisor with the New Orleans Saints at last year’s training camp, the Kansas City Chiefs at this year’s training camp and currently for the Milano Seamen of the European League of Football.
But the weekly airing of “Gruden Loves Football” feels like he is completely back in the game. It’s “Gruden the coach” with a whiteboard and some markers teaching us plays and talking about players that excite him. It’s also “Gruden the human” having personal, one-on-one conversations with current and former players.
You can’t tell the history of the Raiders, without talking about Gruden. In the franchise’s 65-season existence, 12% of that time was under his leadership (only legends John Madden and Tom Flores had longer runs).
That’s a substantial amount of the Raiders history that involved Gruden. So hearing Gruden speak with alumni or compare current NFL players with former Raiders he coached, is important as it contributes to the storytelling of Raiders football and documents its known and unknown history.
Again, the show focuses on the entire league, as it should. But, with the Silver and Black Easter eggs popping up throughout each episode, Gruden becomes a keeper of that history in those brief moments.
Regardless of how you feel about Gruden’s Raiders never winning the big one, you must appreciate his passion for the Silver and Black and the incalculable amount of hours he spent on Raiders football.
The sport of football is a better place with Jon Gruden in it. Educating fans on the whiteboard and making them think in a way they wouldn’t have otherwise is what it’s all about. I’m excited to continue learning the game and the history of my favorite team through his education. And if I can get a few angry Rich Gannon stories along the way, even better.