After nine years of reading headlines on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, Jon Gruden once again finds himself in a headline by taking a job as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders. Even before Gruden signed his 10-year mega-deal, worth a reported $100 million, some criticized the Raiders for this hire, believing it was nothing more than appeasement for a fan base they were soon to leave behind in Oakland.
Although Tim Kawakami partially agrees with that sentiment, the editor-in-chief of The Athletic told Gary & Larry Monday afternoon that this is nothing new for a major hire, telling Gary “yes, in a rare moment I’m going to agree with you 100% on this, in large portion it’s a PR move.”
“There’s a lot of things, but every coach is part marketing,” Kawakami said. “You’re hiring a guy you think the fans can believe in and the owner and general manager can believe in. In this case, with the two years left in the lame-duck years in Oakland and with Las Vegas coming up and all the trials and tribulations we know this team has had in Oakland, I think it’s a big part of it. It’s a big part of any team, but this one is out in front of it.”
Before being traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002, Gruden served as the Raiders’ head coach for four years, where he was 38-26 and led the team to two playoff appearances. He then went on to win the Super Bowl during his first year as head coach for the Buccaneers and stayed in Tampa Bay until 2008, where shortly after he was hired as a color analyst for ESPN.
So, yes. Hiring Gruden was clearly a way in which the Raiders hope to keep their fans loyal to the franchise after they leave for Las Vegas, but their Northern California rivals were also guilty of the same when they hired Kyle Shanahan.
“Hiring Kyle Shanahan was largely PR, but it’s largely PR because the fans are going to believe in him and you believe you’re going to win games, so it’s all a part of a large hiring like this,” Kawakami said. “This one more than most. Of the $100 million, [Gruden is] probably getting $50 million to coach and $50 million to be the front man for a new version of the Raiders.”
To listen to the full interview check out the podcast below, and start from the beginning to for Kawakami on Gruden.