Jon Gruden

The biggest shock with regards to the NFL coaching carousel is that it’s taken THIS long for THIS guy to have his name linked with a job.  THIS guy is of course ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Jon Gruden, who in spite of his new contract at ESPN and his status as the network’s highest paid employee, is routinely linked with pretty much every coaching vacancy from the NFL to the NAIA.

It was quiet on the Gruden Hot Stove, a little too quiet.  That’s where Philly.com stepped in with its latest update on the Eagles’ coaching search as they look for a replacement for Chip Kelly.  In the mix with the hot assistant coaches on the interview circuit was Chucky himself:

One other name has sort of surfaced in the Eagles’ coaching search: Jon Gruden.

Gruden is doing his biennial return-to-coaching tire-kicking. Whether he’s serious this time or just needs his ego massaged still is unclear.

But a league source told the Daily News that he has informed Lurie, through an intermediary, that he is interested in the Eagles’ head-coaching job.

The source said that while Lurie likes and respects Gruden, who was the Eagles’ offensive coordinator in 1997-98, he has reservations about the ESPN Monday Night Football analyst’s ability/willingness to play nice with Roseman, who has returned to a seat of personnel power now that Chip Kelly is gone.

Gruden has told people that working with Roseman wouldn’t be a problem. But Kelly said the same thing when he was hired in 2013, and look how that turned out.

Is Philly finally the job that calls Gruden back to the sidelines?  In the words of another famous ESPN personality, not so fast my friend.

Almost immediately after that report was published another Philly media personality, Howard Eskin, claimed to have a response straight from Gruden himself that said he was not interested:

Gruden has publicly stayed very loyal to ESPN ever since he came to the network in 2009 (is it possible to believe he’s been with ESPN for six full seasons now?!?) even though these reports come and go every offseason.  It’s hard to believe the Eagles job is that perfect opportunity that will finally see him take the plunge back into coaching.  Given how many times we’ve seen this song and dance before, we shouldn’t believe Gruden will leave ESPN until we see it.

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