Sometimes in sports it takes a nudge to get people moving. Other times it takes a full shove. For Jon Gruden and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he needed the shove.
Gruden was coming off a 10-6 season with the Raiders while the Buccaneers had just fired Tony Dungy. At the time, it was a blockbuster trade that sent two first-round picks, two second-round picks, and a bunch of cash to Oakland. The Buccaneers wanted to win a Super Bowl.
Tampa had the roster, but they needed the right coach to turn it all around. Arriving in Tampa, Gruden immediately challenged his defensive players. The payoff came late in that season's Super Bowl.
Jon Gruden took his new Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense to task over a 45-0 blowout the year before
Prior to joining the Buccaneers, Gruden led the Raiders to a massive lopsided blowout over the Bucs. When he arrived in Tampa, he reminded the defense all about it. Then challenged them to get 9 defensive touchdowns.
Gruden appeared on the Not Just Football Podcast, where he talked about his first couple of weeks with the Buccaneers. A team that he did not want to initially be traded to. Gruden talked about how he challenged the defense to be better than just the smack talk they were delivering.
"They wanted to humiliate me, and I think it made them better. I kept telling the defense, ‘If you guys are so good, why don’t you start scoring touchdowns? I mean, intercept the pass and run it in for a touchdown."
Jon Gruden
The challenge paid off. Gruden led the Bucs to the Super Bowl in his first season. In the final minutes of the game, Dwight Smith intercepted a pass and ran it into the end zone for a touchdown. It was the Buccaneers' ninth defensive score of the season.
It's a cool story, but Gruden's time in Tampa would never reach those heights again. Under Gruden, the Bucs would turn in only two more seasons with double-digit win totals. They would finish below .500 in three seasons. After he was fired, he headed back to coach the Raiders.
Gruden will take to the mic this preseason, where he will do the play-by-play for the Buccaneers' game against the Chiefs.
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