Everyone knows that Jon Gruden hates losing.
What most probably don’t know is that losing seems to be one part of what caused Gruden to hesitate before returning to an NFL sideline.
Steve Corkran has been covering the NFL since 1995 and the majority of those years were spent following the Raiders. Corkran knows Gruden from his first stint with the Raiders and talked on the Raiders Fan Radio podcast about conversations he had with Gruden while the head coach was still working for ESPN.
Among the reasons Corkran says Gruden was once hesitant to return to coaching was the feeling he gets after losing football games.
“I’ve got the urge. The problem is, I hate the losing,” Corkran said Gruden told him during his broadcasting career at ESPN.
“Anytime I go down to the locker and I walk into the losing locker room, it all comes flooding back. I hate that feeling. I don’t want to deal with that again.”
Fortunately for the Raiders, Gruden’s desire to win again seems to have trumped his disdain for losing.
The $100 million payday probably didn’t hurt either.
But regardless of what brought him back, after watching his introduction as head coach, there’s no question that Gruden is returning with as much enthusiasm for coaching as anyone on the Raiders’ sideline since… well, probably Jon Gruden.
twitter: @raidersbeat
