It’s been more than two decades since the Raiders were consistent Super Bowl contenders in the AFC, and the ‘Tuck Rule’ game was in many ways the beginning of the downward spiral.
The Jon Gruden trade came soon after the Raiders’ 2002 loss to Tom Brady and the Patriots in the playoffs, and Gruden’s presence in Tampa Bay was a huge factor in the Buccaneers 48-21 win over the Raiders in the Super Bowl the following year.
Lincoln Kennedy was around for the rise and fall of the Raiders in the early 2000’s and on the Jim Rome Show this week, Kennedy shared the final words Gruden shared with the locker room before being shipping off to Tampa.
“The final words that Jon Gruden said to us after the tuck rule game, he said to us when we were in New England. He said, ‘As long as you’re Raiders, they’ll never let you win.’ That was the last words that Jon Gruden said to me as a head coach,” Kennedy said on the Jim Rome Show.
Kennedy shared the conversation he had with Al Davis after Gruden was traded
“Shortly thereafter, months thereafter, I get a call from Al Davis,” Kennedy continued.
“I come to his office and talk to him, on the heels of coming back from a Pro Bowl, and he’s like, ‘I had to do it.’ I’m like, ‘What are you talking about, Mr. Davis?’ He said, ‘I had to trade him. I hate it when teams get involved with coaches that are under contracts, but at the same point, I asked for everything and Tampa gave it. I had to let him go.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, okay, we need a new coach.’ My first suggestion was Bill Callahan. ‘We have to hire within. We’re on something.’”
“We’ve got something that’s brewing, that’s going to be good, but we have to fine-tune it. Let’s hire from within. That’s how Bill Callahan came up. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever expect that we’re going to see Jon Gruden in the Super Bowl. Never in my wildest dreams. To this point, I hadn’t played in the Super Bowl. I played in the AFC Championship game against a very good Baltimore Ravens team led by Ray Lewis, and they went on to win the Super Bowl.”
“So we were looking, we were waiting for our time. The tuck rule game took an opportunity for us to play in possibly the Super Bowl, and then now this happened. I never expected it to be Jon Gruden. We were the last of the one-weekers (one week off before the Super Bowl)… and I honestly say this, looking in hindsight is always 2020… the AFC Championship game against the Tennessee Titans is probably the most physical football game I ever played.”
Gruden believes the NFL came after him and the Raiders again in 2021
Gruden’s second stint with the Raiders is largely considered a failure, but prior to someone leaking his decade-old emails in October of 2021, the Raiders were 3-0 and Gruden’s offense was averaging 30 points per game.
Since November of 2021, Gruden has been in a legal battle with the NFL as he believes someone (or group of people) in the NFL sought to ruin his career by releasing his private emails.
“Through a malicious and orchestrated campaign, the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell sought to destroy the career and reputation of Jon Gruden,” Gruden’s lawsuit stated in 2021.
Six years later, a jury trial for Gruden’s lawsuit is expected to begin around May of 2027.
18 months ago, Mark Davis said Gruden’s head was “chopped off”
Speaking at Pete Carroll’s introductory press conference in 2025, Mark Davis made it clear what he thought of Gruden’s sudden departure in 2021.
“Bringing in Tom Brady was bringing in somebody on the football side that I had been lacking having here in the organization,” Davis said in January of 2025.
“Back in I guess it was ’18 with Jon Gruden, he was somebody that I brought in and really expected to be that person on the football side that would bring stability to the organization,” Davis continued. “He had a 10-year contract and all that, and his head was chopped off. And we were put in a really bad position as an organization.”
x: @raidersbeat
It’s pretty obvious that Gruden wanted more offensive control and personnel control. No way Davis was going to give it up at that time or at any time. That’s why Gruden got traded. And why Lane Kiffin got fired. Or maybe you believe in projector gate?