Jon Gruden wants to return to coaching: ‘I’ll be ready to go if needed’ (original) (raw)

Jon Gruden has a new YouTube show, and he is just getting started again. While the former Raiders coach has been hoping to return to the NFL, he told CBS Sports on Wednesday that he would like a shot to coach a college football team.

Gruden resigned as the Raiders’ head coach in 2021, after a report from The New York Times revealed he used racist, homophobic and sexist language in emails.

Gruden hosted several quarterbacks, including Kirk Cousins and Gardner Minshew, for workouts at his personal coaching headquarters in Lutz, Fla., this past offseason, and worked with the Saints last year as a consultant.

“Yeah, I’m interested in coaching,” Gruden told CBS. “My dad was a college coach, I was a college coach at Pitt, my wife was a cheerleader at Tennessee when I met her. Hell yeah, I’m interested in coaching. I know I can help a team, I know I can help young players get better, and I know I can hire a good staff, and that’s the only thing I can guarantee. But yeah, I’m very interested in coaching at any level, period.”

Gruden was asked by CBS if he had any remorse about what he wrote, and he said, “I’m not even, you don’t even … I’m not even going to get into whether or not. The due process will take care of itself. I haven’t even had my due process yet, so for me to sit here and say, ‘Who said what?’ You know, we’ll just go through the process and leave it at that.”

Gruden sued the NFL in November 2021 claiming Goodell and/or others on his behalf leaked Gruden’s emails to the media to get him fired. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled this summer that the NFL can move the civil contract interference and conspiracy case into arbitration, but Gruden’s attorneys filed a petition to the Court to reconsider that decision.

There’s precedent for coaches continuing to be employed by the NFL while suing the league. For example, Brian Flores is the Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator despite having an ongoing racial-discrimination lawsuit against the NFL along with the Miami Dolphins, Denver Broncos and New York Giants.

Gruden has not been open to college possibilities in the past, but worked with Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe this year and said he has been studying the college game — which the NFL has largely adopted.

“If there’s somebody out there that thinks they need a candidate, somebody to come in there, maybe lather it up a little bit, jazz it up a little bit, I’ll be down here in Tampa,” Gruden told CBS. “I’ll be ready to go if needed.”

Required reading

• Kawakami: Jon Gruden was a small-minded man given the run of the Raiders, with an ugly and deserved ending
• Sando: In the wake of revealing and disturbing emails, the NFL and its owners need to open their minds and their mouths

(Photo: Steve Marcus / Getty Images)

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