(Photo by Tampa Bay Times)
Imagine playing chess with yourself. It's a win-win situation. Everytime you play, you win. I mean, you lose at the same time, but the winning part is more impressive. Now, imagine that you are an NFL head coach and you are doing this type of strategy against a team on the sport's biggest stage. Well, one NFL head coach seemingly did that and won a Super Bowl championship.
In 1998, the Oakland Raiders were in a rebuild phase and owner Al Davis decided to roll the dice on their new head coach. Eagles assistant Jon Gruden had long been on the top of the list of coordinators gunning to become a head coach. Davis made that claim happen, hiring Gruden as their head coach. Within a few years, Gruden would turn the Raiders around to the top of the AFC, leading the team all the way to the conference championship in 2001. The next season, the Raiders once again were near the top of the conference and played a playoff matchup with the New England Patriots in the snow at Foxborough Stadium. Yep, that game. The "Tuck Rule" Game. The Patriots would win the game in overtime, starting a dynasty that everyone loathes to this day, unless you are a Patriots fan. Oakland was left seething with Gruden stating that he had been involved in football for most of his life and he never heard of a "tuck rule" before. So, heading into next season, the Raiders had revenge on their minds.
In the other conference, the NFC, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were a playoff mainstay with one of the league's top defenses and added key players such as quarterback Brad Johnson and wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson to complement their dominating defense. However, this didn't translate to playoff success as going into the season, head coach Tony Dungy was in the hot seat.
Unfortunately, the Bucs lost in another wild card game in 2002, and even after the contest, rumors were swirling that Bill Parcells would become the next head coach of the team. I felt for Tony Dungy, because he built the Buccaneers into a winning franchise after years of many losing seasons. But the Buccaneers decided to "part ways" with Dungy. So, the next coach had to be a big hire and someone that could put Tampa over the top.
So, somewhere in 2002, there was a "rift" between Al Davis and Jon Gruden that could be explained as both men wanted to do things their way, supposedly. So Davis decided to trade his head coach for draft picks. That's right, Al Davis has been known to do certain transactions that are out of the ordinary. This was out of the ordinary. Jon Gruden was traded to the Buccaneers for draft picks, including a first rounder. Maybe Davis wanted Gruden out that badly that Tampa Bay was willing to part with a first rounder. So, Gruden was going to a team with a dominating defense, but with an offense that needed work on. Davis made the decision to promote Gruden's assistant Bill Callahan as head coach. His thinking was Oakland will still be one of the top teams in the AFC, despite losing a coach of the caliber of Jon Gruden. Davis was right.
The Raiders went 11-5, clinched the AFC West, throttled the Jets and Titans in the playoffs to propel Oakland to the Super Bowl for the first time in 18 years.
The Buccaneers went 12-4, clinched the NFC South, destroyed the 49ers in the divisional playoff and exercised their demons of not winning in places where temperatures are under 43 degrees by defeating the Eagles in the NFC Championship to put the Bucs to the franchise's first Super Bowl.
The Buccaneers and Raiders in an "all-pirate" Super Bowl. Jon Gruden against his former team on the biggest stage in what should be a very anticipated matchup.
Here's where everything goes bizarre. A day before Super Bowl XXXVII was to commence, Raiders All-Pro center Barrett Robbins went AWOL on the team. The reasoning behind his mysterious disappearance was on that Friday, Callahan and the coaching staff decided it was a good idea to change the game plan from a running attack to a more passing type of strategy. Robbins pleaded with his coaches not to do this to him. His coaches didn't listen. Robbins, a man with mental illness, didn't take his prescribed medication and wandered off to Tijuana. He was so wasted that he celebrated the Raiders' victory....one day before the game was played.
The game was played, and it was a whitewash. Remember what this blog is about. The Buccaneers' defense tore apart Oakland's vintage offense. I watched the NFL Films highlights of this game and Bucs safety John Lynch was mic'ed up. You could hear him tell his defensive teammates to motion around, because he saw what play the Raiders were running. The play ended up being a Dexter Jackson interception. Jackson would end up with two interceptions and the game's MVP. After that play, Lynch was gleefully telling his defensive backs coach at the time, Mike Tomlin, that he saw the formation the Raiders were setting and knew to adjust the defense to their strength. This entire game was like this. Even John Madden said during the ABC broadcast that Gruden and the Bucs seemingly know every play Oakland was running before they ran it. Jon Gruden was coaching against an offense he contracted and Bill Callahan was asked to not crash this Lamborghini of an offense against the Bucs. It crashed....and burned.
Tampa Bay jumped out to a 34-3 lead. The Raiders would score three touchdowns to make a mini-comeback, that includes a Jerry Rice score. That's right. The greatest receiver of all-time who has had Super Bowl highlights throughout his excellent career, scored a touchdown that everyone forgets since the Raiders were down.....by a lot. The Bucs put the game on ice by Derrick Brooks' interception return for a TD and sealed it with Dwight Smith's pick-six in the closing seconds. 48-21. The Buccaneers win their first Super Bowl championship in franchise history in dominating fashion.
Throughout the game, Jon Gruden was seen running around with a smile, ear to ear, fists pumping. He wanted to stick it to Al Davis. He wanted Al to know he made a mistake trading him. Many people, including Hall of Fame receiver Tim Brown, were convinced that Callahan sabotaged the game by changing the strategy days before. Callahan was also not liked by his team and many were ecstatic when he was let go a year later after the Raiders went 4-12. Gruden seemingly wore out his welcome by dismantling this Hall of Fame-type defense in favor of an offense that was capable. It didn't work. Gruden was let go by the Buccaneers in 2009. Oh, and Tony Dungy would go on to coach the Indianapolis Colts to a Super Bowl championship in 2016. Callahan had a brief stint as head coach at the University of Nebraska and was an interim head coach for Washington in 2019 after Jon's brother, Jay, was let go. And after many years, Al's son, Mark, decided to make Jon Gruden their head coach in 2018 for the now Las Vegas Raiders.
Jon Gruden played chess with himself on the NFL's biggest stage and won. But in the end, he lost as well.
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