Jon Gruden Addresses Desire to Return to Coaching in Revealing Interview

Getty Former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden.

Jon Gruden has been out of the NFL since he resigned from the Las Vegas Raiders during the 2021 season after The New York Times reported that he had sent a number of homophobic, racist and sexist emails. Outside of some consulting and advisory work with the New Orleans Saints and Milano Seamen of the European League of Football, Gruden hasn’t been closely involved with football at a coaching level since.

However, he’s hoping to change that. He made it clear that he still has a desire to be a coach if there’s any interest in him out there.

“Yeah, I’m interested in coaching,” Gruden told CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello in a September 18 interview. “My dad was a college coach, I was a college coach at Pitt, my wife was a cheerleader at Tennessee when I met her. Hell yeah, I’m interested in coaching. I know I can help a team, I know I can help young players get better, and I know I can hire a good staff, and that’s the only thing I can guarantee. But yeah, I’m very interested in coaching at any level, period.”

Notably, Gruden said he’ll coach at any level. In the past, he’s strictly been an NFL coach. He hasn’t coached at the college level since 1991. If he’s hoping to get back into coaching, college would make a lot of sense. He could go to a smaller program to try and rehabilitate his image and his style of coaching might be a better fit at that level.

Jon Gruden Not Interested in Talking About Email Scandal

If Gruden coaches again, he will likely be asked about the email scandal that led to his resignation. For now, he’s not very interested in relitigating that topic.

“I’m not even, you don’t even … I’m not even going to get into whether or not,” Gruden told Marcello. “The due process will take care of itself. I haven’t even had my due process yet, so for me to sit here and say, ‘Who said what?’ You know, we’ll just go through the process and leave it at that.”

This is going to be a topic that will follow Gruden no matter where he coaches next.

Jon Gruden Ready to Go When Number Is Called

Gruden recently started up a YouTube channel where he talks about football and breaks down recent games while also interviewing current and former players. He was always famous for grinding a lot of tape and that doesn’t appear to have changed.

Though he hasn’t held an official NFL position since resigning from the Raiders, he’s keeping ready in case his number is called.

“If there’s somebody out there that thinks they need a candidate, somebody to come in there, maybe lather it up a little bit, jazz it up a little bit, I’ll be down here in Tampa,” Gruden told Marcello. “I’ll be ready to go if needed.”

It’s hard to imagine getting any head coaching offers at the NFL level. In his return to the Raiders, he went 22-31 before resigning. If the hope is to be a head coach again, college may be his best option. He could also consider offensive coordinator positions in the NFL if there are interested teams.