Jon Gruden resigned as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders—his last formal football coaching job—in Oct. 2021 after the release of a trove of emails that he sent from 2010 to '18 containing racist, misogynstic and anti-LGBTQ remarks. Now, less than four years later, he confirmed that he still wants to make a football comeback, even if it doesn't happen at the NFL level.
"Hopefully I'm not done," Gruden told reporters while attending Detroit Lions training camp, per the Detroit Free Press. "I'm about to make a comeback. I'm working hard to maybe get one more shot, but hopefully some of these guys that fell off my branch, if you say it that way, maybe they can hire me because I'm looking for a job."
When asked about his chances of returning to the NFL, Gruden said he doesn't "care about that."
"I don't care if I coach at Jones Junior High," he continued. "I'm going to coach again. I'm still coaching. I'm just not on a team officially, but I do have some private assignments I work on and I wear some gear when I'm watching the games that nobody knows about who I'm pulling for."
Gruden attended Lions camp to support new Detroit offensive coordinator John Morton, whose first coaching job came as an assistant under Gruden with the Oakland Raiders in the late 1990s. He later worked for Gruden again during his second stint leading the Raiders in Oakland and later Las Vegas, before his resignation.
While he has not landed another coaching job since his ouster three-plus years ago, Gruden has never strayed far from football. He worked with the New Orleans Saints and coach Dennis Allen as an advisor in 2023, and the following year was named to an advisory role with the Milano Seamen of the European League of Football. He has also reentered the media with Barstool Sports, reviving a version of his quarterback camp series that previously aired on ESPN, in which he evaluates and breaks down film with draft prospects. Gruden recently did some work for the Baltimore Ravens, evaluating the roster for coach John Harbaugh.
Gruden sued the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell after his resignation, accusing them of a "malicious and orchestrated campaign" to "destroy" his career. He is currently awaiting a rehearing before the Nevada Supreme Court, Pro Football Talk reported in May.
Whether this continued exposure and the ballast of time will ultimately help him land a coaching job—in the NFL, junior high or somewhere in between—remains to be seen.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jon Gruden Insists He Isn't Done Coaching During Lions Camp Appearance.
