Gruden mastered Mondays at ESPN
Raiders coach had a long, successful run at network as a football analyst
OAKLAND >> The call arrived from the fictitious Pete Townsend “from some paper in Wichita.”
Jay Rothman, an ESPN executive, admits he was the man making the request.
Jon Gruden was on a national conference call for the NFL Network to break down the draft. It was his new gig after being fired as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Rothman had already watched Gruden’s work at the NFL scouting combine for the network on television and was intrigued. He was willing to misrepresent himself to get more information.
ESPN was looking for new blood on Monday Night Football.
Hence Pete Townsend from Wichita.
“We were hunting, you know?” Rothman said in a phone interview. “I listened, took notes, and said, ‘Holy crap! We’ve got to get this guy.’ ”
When the draft commenced at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, Rothman wandered from the ESPN set to the NFL Network set, stalking Gruden as a lion would an antelope.
Gruden remembered Rothman from production meetings when the Bucs played on Monday nights. Lunch was arranged at Gramercy Tavern. Rothman made his pitch, then left for Penn Station to catch a train to Connecticut.
“I’m literally going down the escalator and I get a text from Jon,” Rothman said. “He said, ‘Hey, can you come back and have a beer with me?’ I jumped in a cab and went back.”
A few hours later, Gruden had joined the team at Monday Night Football.
Gruden remained there for nine years and 144 broadcasts. More games than he coached in seven years with the Bucs. More than in the four he coached with the Raiders.
So it comes as no surprise that after the Raiders hired Gruden to be their coach in January, his first regular-season game would be tonight against the Los Angeles Rams.
ESPN even assigned their new No. 1 team to the game, rather than the usual early game of the yearly Week 1 doubleheader.
As the Raiders went through a walkthrough practice Saturday, the Monday night jingle and the Hank Williams Jr. song blared through the loudspeaker as players went through warmups.
“I thought it was as great an honor as being a head coach in the NFL,” Gruden said this week. “I grew up a big fan as a kid. The iconic song, Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford. I used to imitate Dandy Don (Meredith). It was a hell of a job, a hard job to leave.”
Yet Gruden did leave it, although it took longer than most figured. Gruden found television to be a new challenge, one that would also allow him to see two of his three sons get through high school. He even helped coach his oldest, Deuce, now a Raiders strength and conditioning assistant.
“The stars were aligned. If you asked me in my heart of hearts, would we have him for nine years?,” Rothman said, “I probably would have said no because I know how hard he was courted every year by NFL and college teams. And I know the offers were all ridiculous.”
Rothman called Gruden a “natural” in the booth, although the suddenly former coach didn’t feel that way.
“I had no experience,” Gruden said. “The most important thing for me was the feedback.”
So Gruden called upon his coaching critiques of Rich Gannon from 1999-2001 and advised Rothman to do the same.
“When Gannon was here, we used to try and grade the feet, the decision and the throw on every play,” Gruden said. “I asked Rothman on every broadcast, ‘Give me the Gannon notes.’ Chew me up. Be critical. Tell me what I’ve got to do to get better. He made it fun. He challenged me and gave me other things to do besides the broadcast.”
Critics thought Gruden wasn’t critical enough during broadcasts, but Rothman didn’t mind.
“I listened to the early knocks, how he loved everybody and that stuff,” Rothman said. “He used to say to me, ‘What’s wrong with being positive?’ He’d say after every play, somebody did a great job. Every single play. Let’s celebrate that.”
Lisa Salters, who joined the Monday night crew as a sideline reporter, appreciated Gruden’s patience — something that hasn’t been normally associated with his coaching career when it comes to his players.
Formations, philosophies, alignment, there wasn’t anything Gruden wasn’t willing to explain to someone willing to listen.
“He always made me feel comfortable like he was happy to teach you, and that was the joy I remember,” Salters said. “I knew there was nothing I couldn’t ask him about football that he wouldn’t only answer, but be happy to answer.”
Rothman and Gruden fed off each other, each learning more about the business of the other.
“I think Jon really did lean on Jay to show him the ropes about TV, and Jon would coach Jay up on the intracasies of the game,” Salters said. “That’s why they worked well together. They knew that the other skill set was valuable.”
In the spotlight off the field, Gruden shunned it on game day. He never set foot on the field during pregame until a preseason assignment in Oakland where he met with Raiders fans in the Black Hole.
“It’s the only time he left the broadcast booth, to see his people,” Rothman said. “He loved ‘em.”
Besides the Monday night assignment, Rothman expanded Gruden’s role for “Gruden’s QB Camp,” an enormously popular feature in which he would produce lesson plans and interview quarterbacks expected to be selected in the upcoming draft.
ESPN took the strip mall office used for his “Fired Football Coaches of America” and in Rothman’ words, “tricked it out” to add to the vast library of information Gruden already possessed.
Beside young quarterbacks, established NFL quarterbacks such as Drew Brees flew in to talk strategy and philosophy with Gruden, as did college coaches that included Alabama’s Nick Saban.
Gruden, Rothman said, became a receptacle of information. He urged Dallas owner Jerry Jones to consider Dak Prescott, talked up Derek Carr to Mark Davis and told Chiefs coach Andy Reid he should draft Pat Mahomes.
The former coach also opened doors for ESPN access they never would have received otherwise simply because “they all wanted to hear what he had to say,” Rothman said.
Former Indianapolis general manager Bill Polian balked at having Gruden present in fear of his return to the sideline, but Rothman said those issues were few and far between.
ESPN essentially provided a lab for Gruden to work in for nearly a decade as he considered a return to the sideline.
“It was a great team, a lot of fun and family,” Gruden said. “It’s been emotional to see all these guys. They’re great friends.”