It’s not the NFL, it’s not college football, it’s not ESPN, but Jon Gruden is coming back and he’s doing it with Barstool Sports.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter was first to break the news Thursday morning on social media. We don’t know exactly how Barstool Sports will be using the former Super Bowl winning head coach, but we know they’ll be doing it for a while, with Schefter reporting it’s a multi-year deal.
“Former Buccaneers and Raiders head coach Jon Gruden has signed a multi-year deal with Barstool Sports,” Schefter wrote.
Let’s go! @barstool_gruden https://t.co/psaRpt6opo pic.twitter.com/t0v6KLMFhN
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) November 14, 2024
And yes, that is the real Adam Schefter who broke the news, not a parody account. Shortly after, Dave Portnoy confirmed Gruden’s hire with a hype video featuring the former NFL head coach. The news comes less than 24 hours after Boomer Esiason said there is mutual interest between Gruden and NFL teams about his return to coaching. “He’s definitely coming back,” Esiason claimed on WFAN.
A multi-year deal probably won’t preclude Gruden from making that return, but it’s certainly an unconventional steppingstone.
This will be Gruden’s most mainstream media gig since he left ESPN to coach the Raiders in 2018. Gruden resigned from the Raiders in 2021 after emails were leaked showing him making homophobic and misogynistic remarks. In the ensuing years, Gruden maintained a low-profile, until embarking on a media tour to promote his YouTube channel this past summer.
Gruden’s YouTube channel where he provides game breakdowns in front of a cluttered whiteboard has been a hit, posting his first video two months ago and already amassing nearly 200,000 subscribers. Now he’ll continue to rehabilitate his image in hopes of landing a coaching gig by taking his talents to Barstool Sports.
[Barstool]
