Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Jon Gruden?

About 6/7 yrs ago I wrote on a discussion board that Jon Gruden was one of the most exciting young coaches the game had seen in a long time, and that he might have a shot at breaking Shula's record.

– I should just end this post right there, shouldn't I? You're laughing already: nothing I can write next (like, "WTF was I smoking?") will be as funny as the sentence above.

Gruden is on ESPN doing Monday Night Football now with Jaws & Tirico, and football commentary for various occasions. And I swear he seems
like a friggin CLOWN! Does this guy have any idea how football games are won and lost? I suppose he must. But man, sitting next to Jaworski does not put this guy in a flattering light. He seems like an idiot. I mean, compare him to a guy like Jim Schwartz, just in terms of the impression you get.

I suppose we should reserve judgment. Gruden was 3 games under .500 over the last 6 years. On the one hand that is not winning. But on the other hand it's really not bad. He won 11 games in 2005, and 9 each in 2007 & 8, in a league where winning is just ludicrously tough. He's 45 now, with 95 games won in his career – that's more than Bill Walsh! (reg season) Plus the 2002 SuperBowl. He's got to know a little bit of football, right?

But man. Every time he talks, I just wince.

4 comments:

  1. I agree completely. Some of the media pundits are going crazy over this guy, were raving about the pick-up (or lamenting for NFLN getting screwed since they were supposed to have him first). All I could think was back to the draft and how stupid he sounded and think "Are they talking about a different Gruden?"

    I think he's terrible. He really doesn't sound like he knows much about what he's talking about. Classic armchair QB that knows nothing but the most obvious stuff about the game and thinks he could do a GM's job.

    I'll say that as of right now he's at least better than Kornheiser. But not by much. That crew would be so awesome if they could get a legit broadcaster into that third role. Honestly, they don't even need a third...if they just cut it to Tirico and Jaws it'd probably be the best crew in the business.

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  2. I never understood why Kornheiser rubbed so many people the wrong way. His voice was a little shrill, but I thought he did a good job, in a role that may or may not have been well conceived. The reaction to him always seemed way disproportionate. I mean, almost anti-semitic disproportionate: way over the top.

    Hell, Kornheiser was Gandhi compared to Dennis Miller.

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  3. Dennis Miller was an idiot. He didn't even try to learn about the game, and it showed.

    Kornheiser is just a football guy that's trying to be funny, and is really, really not. He has mediocre at best football knowledge (I loved when Jaws consistently laid down some serious smack on him every time he's wrong), but he kept trying to be funny and was just terrible.

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  4. Big Tony's radio show is back on the air in DC, on ESPN980. I haven't gotten a chance to listen yet, but he always used to have a real good show. I think you'd like him more if you got to listen to his radio show occasionally.

    ReplyDelete

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