Jon Gruden

Jon David Gruden (born August 17, 1963) is an American professional football coach who is a consultant for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL).

Gruden was born on August 17, 1963, in Sandusky, Ohio into a family of Slovene descent.

His father, Jim, later served as a professional football regional scout, quarterbacks coach, and director of player personnel for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Gruden's younger brother, Jay, played and coached in the Arena Football League for the Tampa Bay Storm and Orlando Predators, and was most recently the head coach of the Washington Redskins.

His other brother, James, is a radiologist at UNC School of Medicine.

Gruden was raised Catholic and was a Cleveland Browns fan growing up.

At the age of 15, he attended Clay High School in South Bend, Indiana, home to the University of Notre Dame, where his father served as an assistant to head coach Dan Devine.

After graduating in 1982, Gruden attended Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio.

A year later, he transferred to the University of Dayton.

At Dayton, Gruden was a three-year letterman and backup quarterback for the Flyers under coach Mike Kelly.

Gruden never saw much playing time, but the Flyers posted a 24–7 record during his three seasons at the University of Dayton.

After graduating from the University of Dayton, Gruden was hired as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Tennessee during the 1985–86 season.

After his time with the Volunteers, Gruden spent two years after that as the quarterbacks coach at Southeast Missouri State.

He graduated with a degree in communications in 1986.

While Gruden was with the Raiders, Gruden acquired his nickname "Chucky" from Raiders defensive lineman Grady Jackson, who thought that the coach looked like the fictional character "Chucky" in the 1988 slasher movie Child's Play.

He then moved to the University of the Pacific in 1989 as offensive assistant as the tight ends coach.

Walt Harris was the offensive coordinator at Tennessee, where Gruden was one of his graduate assistant coaches, and later hired him at Pacific.

In 1990, Gruden was a special assistant with the San Francisco 49ers under quarterbacks coach Mike Holmgren.

In March 1991, Gruden became the wide receivers coach for the University of Pittsburgh under head coach Paul Hackett.

In January 1992, at the age of 28, Gruden was hired by Mike Holmgren, his former boss at the San Francisco 49ers, to be the special offensive assistant/wide receivers coach with the Green Bay Packers.

After three seasons in Green Bay, Gruden became the offensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles under former Packers assistant coach Ray Rhodes.

He held his first head coaching position with the Raiders franchise during their Oakland tenure from 1998 to 2001, where he won two consecutive division titles and made an AFC Championship Game appearance.

Gruden was chosen by the owner and general manager of the Oakland Raiders, Al Davis, to be the Raiders' new head coach for the 1998 season.

Under Gruden, the Raiders posted consecutive 8–8 seasons in 1998 and 1999, and leapt out of last place in the AFC West.

After uniting with journeyman quarterback Rich Gannon, Gruden led the Raiders to the top of the AFC West and they made the playoffs in 2000 and 2001.

Oakland finished 12–4 in the 2000 season, the team's most successful season in a decade, and its first division title since 1990, ultimately reaching the AFC Championship, where they lost, 16–3, to the eventual Super Bowl champions Baltimore Ravens.

In 2001, the Raiders would return to the postseason with a 10–6 record, but in the AFC Divisional Round a negated fumble proved costly as they were defeated, 16–13, in overtime by the eventual Super Bowl champions New England Patriots.

Gruden was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, which he led to their first Super Bowl title in Super Bowl XXXVII the same season.

At age 39, he was the then-youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl.

After compiling a 40–28 win–loss record (including playoffs) in four seasons with the Raiders, Gruden replaced the fired Tony Dungy as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, via a high-stakes trade that included Tampa Bay's 2002 and 2003 first-round draft picks, 2002 and 2004 second-round draft picks, and $8 million in cash.

The trade took place for a number of reasons, including Davis's desire for a more vertical passing attack rather than Gruden's horizontal pass attack, the fact that Gruden's contract would expire a year after the trade, and Davis's uncertainty over whether Gruden was worth as much money as his next contract was sure to pay him.

Gruden signed a five-year contract with the Buccaneers worth $17.5 million.

The Buccaneers' search for a head coach had taken more than two months, and Tampa Bay had expressed an interest in Gruden, but Davis had originally refused to release him from his contract.

The team subsequently interviewed several other coaches and believed a deal was in place with Bill Parcells, before Parcells backed out, reportedly because his choice for General Manager, Mike Tannenbaum, told him not to accept the job because of the salary cap difficulties that Tampa Bay was about to endure.

He served as Tampa Bay's head coach through 2008, setting the franchise record for wins, but made only two further playoff runs.

After his firing from the Buccaneers, Gruden was featured as an analyst for ESPN's Monday Night Football broadcasts from the 2009 to the 2017 seasons.

In 2018, Gruden returned to the Raiders as their head coach.

He led the team until his resignation during the 2021 season after it was publicly revealed that he wrote and sent many racist, misogynistic, and homophobic emails between 2011 and 2018.

In response, Tampa Bay removed Gruden from the Buccaneers Ring of Honor.

In 2023, he was brought in by the Saints for a work out for their offensive coaching.