[ad_1]
Leading up to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ second preseason game, Jon Gruden teased that his dynamic with Ronde Barber in the broadcast booth “could be a game-changer.”
Saturday night’s call for the Bucs’ 16-15 win over the Kansas City Chiefs wasn’t quite that, but it did mark Gruden’s first time in the booth since he left “Monday Night Football” to take a head coaching job with the then-Oakland Raiders in 2018.
“I was nervous, I’ll be honest with you,” Gruden said in a postgame segment with Barber, the Hall of Fame cornerback. “Having a chance to come back in the stadium as a broadcaster, with my Hall of Fame man, I mean, I really was a basket case.”
Gruden got the opportunity on WFLA-TV because Chris Myers, the regular play-by-play announcer, was scheduled to work the IndyCar Freedom 250 for Fox. Myers typically handles play-by-play for Bucs preseason games while Barber serves as the color analyst — a role Gruden also filled throughout his time on MNF.
Thus, Saturday’s broadcast went without traditional play-by-play commentary.
Top Plays from Chiefs @ Buccaneers
“You never know. This concept could be a game-changer in the broadcast booth,” Gruden said on “The Ronde Barber Show” earlier this week. “I mean, there’s been a conventional way. I sat up there for nine years and did it. (Play-by-play announcer) Mike Tirico, there was a cadence … But I think as long as we’re on the same page, we love the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We’re going to try to really educate the fans on some of the position battles, just the excitement of opening day in our stadium.”
Perhaps because Gruden was filling in for Myers, the perception was that he would be making his debut as a play-by-play announcer. He even fielded questions to that effect during a news conference earlier this month, when he shared that Frank Gifford was one of his favorite play-by-play announcers growing up. Gifford was famously interchangeable as a play-by-play man and color analyst.
However, once Saturday’s game kicked off, it became apparent Gruden was operating in his familiar role as an analyst. Barber took on most of the responsibility of calling out down-and-distance, setting up the action and going in and out of breaks. It’s not a role Barber is used to either, so the broadcast was predictably disjointed.
Overall, it sounded more like a version of the “ManningCast,” with both participants leaning into commentary and analysis. It helped that their expertise fell on opposite sides of the ball, with the former play caller Gruden a stronger offensive presence and Barber leading the defensive commentary.
“My week wasn’t as calm as it normally is,” Barber said after the game. “Usually, I let Chris do all of the heavy lifting. I was like, ‘We got heavy lifting to do.’ But we made it through.”
After successful head coaching stints with the Raiders and Bucs from the late 1990s through the late 2000s, Gruden replaced Tony Kornheiser as the color analyst on MNF. His demeanor and delivery made him popular and, at one point, Gruden became the highest-paid personality at ESPN.
“I had a lot of fun doing it for nine years,” Gruden said at the early August news conference. “I was very fortunate on ‘Monday Night Football,’ especially the years with Tirico. We had a lot of fun, and we took every game like it was the Super Bowl. We took it very seriously and had a lot of fun.”
Gruden returned to coaching in 2018 after signing a 10-year contract with the Raiders, but his relationship with the NFL turned turbulent in the fall of 2021 when racist, homophobic and sexist emails he had sent emerged during a league investigation into the Washington Commanders. Gruden resigned shortly after the emails were made public. The Bucs also removed Gruden from their Ring of Honor, but later reinstated him.
Gruden sued the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell a month after his resignation, accusing the league of leaking the emails “through a malicious and orchestrated campaign” to destroy his reputation. The lawsuit remains active in Nevada, and Clark County District Judge Joe Hardy recently expressed frustration with the way Gruden’s side has proceeded. Hardy was particularly pointed about the pace of the Gruden legal team’s responses to requests for discovery items.
“I remain concerned with Gruden’s side’s delays and lack of cooperation, lack of compliance with the rules,” Hardy said on Aug. 10, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Gruden, who works for Barstool Sports and contributes on a variety of shows on its platform, has a jury trial scheduled to begin May 24, 2027.
[ad_2]
Source link
