Chucky: “I Almost Jumped Back”
May 14th, 2015
The Bucs’ Super Bowl winning head coach, the man who retired from coaching after Team Glazer showed him the door six years ago, says his wife prevented him from diving back into the NFL ranks.
Speaking on WDAE-AM 620 today, during Ronnie and TKras, Jon Gruden was asked whether he’s going to be an NFL coach again someday.
“I don’t know. I was at the edge of the pool looking in. I almost jumped back in this offseason,” Chucky said. “But my wife had control of me by the back end, so I haven’t been able to jump, but I love what I’m doing.”
For those who have followed Chucky’s desire to keep his name alive for potential head coaching jobs, this might be the strongest language yet that Chucky wants to return to the NFL sidelines.
So what team made Chucky almost jump back in? Atlanta? The Jets? That’s a fun argument, unless Chucky is just blowing a bunch of hot air.
You can hear Chucky’s full interview below, via the WDAE-AM 620 audio player.
May 14th, 2015 at 11:10 am
I think Chuckie mis-spoke, and meant “Last Offseason”….The Bucs and the Glazers making the offer, before Lovie.
May 14th, 2015 at 11:12 am
Come back to Tampa Lovie is horrible, get raheem as the DC and lets go all my exes live in………….
May 14th, 2015 at 11:15 am
No thx to JGru. His bad drafting and inability to develop players is the reason the YUCS are where they are now. Thx for the SB though!
May 14th, 2015 at 11:16 am
Did anyone actually want him? He’s a great XO’s guy as long as he stays away from the personnel decisions.
May 14th, 2015 at 11:21 am
Gruden is a great X’s and O’s guy but he stinks at shopping for his groceries. Anyone remember Sabby. What about picking the Caddy instead of Aaron Rogers when all we had was Simms who he wasn’t in love with anyway.
Gruden is where he belongs and he isn’t going anywhere. Of course, like anyone, he likes to have his ego stroked, so hence him leaving the door open to coaching.
May 14th, 2015 at 11:25 am
@keith, i belive the glazzer reached out to him 1st too.
@waterboy, you are clueless, he is one of hte best and everyone wanted him, he didn’t make all the personel decisions and didn’t have any $ to spend.
He’s not perfect . How good did he get the raiders to be and what have they been since? Same with the bucs.
Did anyone want him? seriously?
May 14th, 2015 at 11:26 am
He’s still young. I can see him coaching again somewhere down the line.
May 14th, 2015 at 11:28 am
@drdneast
Not to mention the year before he drafted Cadillac and passed on Rodgers he had Thomas Jones on the roster but had a personality conflict with him and wouldn’t use him much. Needless to say Jones went on to have many productive seasons with other teams after leaving the Bucs.
May 14th, 2015 at 11:34 am
@Mike
It’s funny how the Glazers had no problem spending prior to him coming to the Bucs and running off Rich McKay to bring in his boy Allen from Oakland. After several years of watching their money get wasted on over the hill players and bad drafts picks I can see why the Glazers would add more oversight to his spending and personnel moves.
May 14th, 2015 at 11:34 am
Thomas Jones, loved that dude.
May 14th, 2015 at 11:35 am
Bucs offered him the job before lovie and he declined
May 14th, 2015 at 11:38 am
He’s making at least as much as most NFL head coaches without the long hours. Plus he’s had more family time with his teenage boys.
May 14th, 2015 at 11:40 am
Whatever the cost. The draft picks and money given up to the Raiders. The bad years after the Super Bowl while Gruden was the coach. Was all worth it.
People whine about the guy. Those that want to complain about him, should look at what we have now and stop complaining. Fans should be thankful we had Gruden and that SB. Anything that happened afterwards is moot where I’m sitting. I don’t care what he did after the SB.
How long before our team sees another SB? Look down that tunnel. Do you see the light at all?
May 14th, 2015 at 11:54 am
Yes. I see the light, I see the truth, the messiah, the savior.
Though I walk thru the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no defense.
May 14th, 2015 at 12:00 pm
Buc1987, you are spot on, everyone can be a genious looking back on gruden but guy was a winner here and was fired with a winning record, he wanted aaron rodgers but didnt wnat to wait and wanted to give us a winner now…rodgers sat for 2 years and did nada for green bay and now he is one of the best, 24 teams passed on him too
May 14th, 2015 at 12:05 pm
For those saying we should have drafted Rodgers I ask this, can you tell me how Aaron Rodgers would have played without sitting behind Farve a few years and having the opportunity to learn and work out some of his issues, throwing mechnics, holding ball too long, etc.? Because, he would not have done that here.
Remember this was said about him prior to his draft
NFC scout: “I think he has a good chance of being a bust. Just like every other Tedford-coached quarterback. Thing I struggle with him is he gets sacked a lot. He doesn’t have great ability to change the release of the football. He’s mechanically very rigid. Brett Favre can change his release point and find different windows. There will be more growing pains with Alex Smith but in the end he has a much better chance to be much better.”
NFC scout: “The guys that Tedford has had, what have they developed into? They’re too well-schooled. So mechanical. So robotic. I don’t know if they become good pro players. I think Rodgers is in that same mold.”
AFC scout: “I don’t like him. He’s a clone of Harrington and Boller. They all throw the same way. What have those guys done? Nothing. If you take him in the second round, fine. Heady guy. They do a marvelous job of coaching quarterbacks there. I don’t think he’s as good as the top quarterbacks coming out last year.”
Gruden took WR Jerry Rice out to a private meeting with Aaron. He had him throwing balls to Rice, it didn’t go so well, so he didn’t draft him.
May 14th, 2015 at 12:11 pm
Hind sight is always 20/20.
May 14th, 2015 at 12:30 pm
Kiffin leaking the announcement of his leaving the Bucs caused the downward spiral that cost Gruden his job. There was another reason I have heard, but it is not worth repeating unless it is proven wrong by him taking another HC job.
May 14th, 2015 at 12:30 pm
I think his approach to the game is probably dated now.
May 14th, 2015 at 12:30 pm
I would have liked to see what ole Jake Plummer would have been able to do under Gruden (think Rich Gannon), but Mike Shanahan ruined his trust in coaches and the game.
May 14th, 2015 at 12:42 pm
Look at the Bucs and Raiders after Gruden. Nuff said, should’ve never fired him. Lovie and the Glazers suck
May 14th, 2015 at 12:54 pm
Geeze if he waits another year or two there could very well be an opening in Tampa if he wants to see if he can win a SB for the Bucs again?
May 14th, 2015 at 1:00 pm
Firing Jon Gruden for Raheem Morris is still the funniest joke of all time.
May 14th, 2015 at 1:03 pm
Ray Rice Says:
May 14th, 2015 at 11:15 am
No thx to JGru. His bad drafting and inability to develop players is the reason the YUCS are where they are now. Thx for the SB though!
Really man? Last time I checked, the Buccaneers were a winning team when Gruden was fired. Since then, they’ve been 30-100! Let me repeat that: 30-100!!!!!
May 14th, 2015 at 1:08 pm
should of never fired gruden
May 14th, 2015 at 2:41 pm
Sorry, I meant to say 30-70, not 30-100!
May 14th, 2015 at 3:53 pm
2 playoff appearances from 2003-2009 and 0 playoff wins. You’re fired!
May 14th, 2015 at 5:29 pm
Never forget how he treated Alstott.
May 14th, 2015 at 6:49 pm
i think they fired gruden for the right reasons – the bad drafts he and allen ran along with duct taping a roster of old dudes together to perhaps win 9 or 10 games is not the model for a realistic championship window. the mistakes are in all the awful hires that were made at the HC,GM, and (more critically in my opinion) OC & DC roles subsequently. we have had our share of talented players come through tampa over the last 5 years, but unlike the kiffin or gruden era, those players were more likely to play their worst football than their best football during the buccaneer phase of their careers.
May 14th, 2015 at 6:51 pm
p.s. i place gruden ahead of dungy in the buccaneer coaching pantheon. even though dungy came first and made huge progress with this franchise, it would be an injustice for him to go into the ring of honor before the head coach who brought our only lombardi home
May 14th, 2015 at 7:31 pm
Yes Waterboy, but how many playoff appearances since?
May 14th, 2015 at 7:34 pm
Alstott fumbled too much for Gruden. Simple as that.
May 14th, 2015 at 7:48 pm
0 playoff appearances since he was fired but still the same number of playoff wins. A large part of the reason they haven’t been back was because they had to start over from scratch to replenish the talent pool after he left. I still can’t get over him taking that punt returner Dexter Jackson in the 2nd round.
May 14th, 2015 at 9:30 pm
Tmax and I debate about Lovie a lot. Not so much because I’m a huge Lovie fan and feel he needs praise as much as Lovie’s record really isn’t all that bad when compared with his peers.
Ironically I’m probably with Tmax in terms of not enjoying Lovieball. But if he’s going to commit to Koetter and open things up and play 2015 NFL ball then I’ll be a big fan of Lovies
Some of this is really hard to separate. Do you admire a coach simply because of W’s and L’s? Does the style of play influence you? E.G. I’d much rather watch a Chip Kelly team than a Bill Boring Belicheat team. Much rather watch a Pete Carroll team than a Tom Coughlin team. But those are stylistic reasons not because I believe one coach to be that much better than another.
Then there is the situation. I admire and respect Mike Tomlin and Bill Cowher but how much did the Rooney’s and Chuck Noll have to do with their success?
Ditto for Steve Mariucci. Not a bad coach but not in Bill Walsh’s league.
And then there is the supposed “best” coach in today’s NFL Belicheat. The only way I’ll ever be a believer in Belicheats talent if if he continues after Brady retires and is still a winner. THEN I’ll be impressed because before Brady Belicheat was a Cleveland Browns reject. A great defensive coordinator who had a losing record until Brady.
May 14th, 2015 at 9:53 pm
I just remember when Gruden was hired by the Bucs and he mentioned “Mark Allstott” in his opening presser with a-Train actually present in the room. That was telling…. The almost immediate tension between GM McKay and Chuckie also was hard to hide and it did not take too long for McKay to go off and help the ATL, of course losing so many high draft picks to the Raiders to land Chuckie put McKay behind the 8-ball from day 1 of the Gruden era, hard to build without first and 2nd round draft picks…. Nonetheless the guy won a ring and the Bucs have had one winning season since the Glazer lads cut Chuckie loose after the 9-3 to 9-7 collapse in 2008…..
May 14th, 2015 at 10:23 pm
He almost went to help kellen Winslow sr, at tiny central st in sw ohio, a couple years back, iirc. 2nd or 3rd mnf season he was still considering..Kellen was the a.d. i believe, might still be. I know they had alot of financial problems before he arrived. They produced a cpl big timers though, i.e. erik “big cat” williams aikman blindside ot during its 90’s run
May 15th, 2015 at 12:31 pm
FTM Dave,
Dude, WTF did McKay do so great for Atlanta? He was so inept at GM they moved him over for another guy. And the collapse from 9-3 to 9-7 was the defense’s, thanks to Monty being focused on his s-head son’s Tennesse failure.