More On The Gruden Hiring
Monday, May 18, 2009
Just a quick little update that I thought I'd provide its own thread for. Not only does the hiring of Gruden come as quite a shock, but it's awfully funny how people's opinions change when money is involved. When Gruden was in Tampa, he had not one, but two famous run ins with ESPN's reporting crew. Both came in 2007, with the first being in response to an ESPN report that Bucs' QB Bruce Gradkowsi might have been involved in an NCAA point shaving scandal. Gruden even uttered the words "I don't believe half the f**king people on the channel". Then later in the season, a Mort report involving Jeff Garcia, cause the coach to go off again. Here are the two quotes....
September, 2007:"I don't watch ESPN. I don't believe half the [expletive] people on the channel, personally – no disrespect. But if Bruce Gradkowski is throwing games in Toledo, how in the hell does he lead the NCAA in passing percentages? That is a crock. You know, these reports make me sick – really. I don't believe [there is] any truth to it, and I'll go to my grave believing that. I hope ESPN 3 or 4 has real sources behind this story, because it has nothing to do with the kid. He's a great kid. He wants to be great. This is very uncharacteristic, in my opinion, of 'professional' journalism."So as you can see, there was plainly a hatred there once, that has now magically disappeared. Obviously opinions can change, but I find it kind of ironic that Gruden has now become one of the people he doesn't "f**ing believe". There's no question he is a smart Football mind, but he also has a reputation that will certainly follow him.
December, 2007: "There's a lot of reports out there," Gruden said. "I just wish some of these reports were verified. (Mortensen) doesn't have a (expletive) idea what he's talking about. I can't understand why he would say that unless he got the X-rays himself."
Jon Gruden Goes Off On ESPN's Chris Mortensen (Awful Announcing)
ESPN4? That Was Supposed to Be A Secret! (Deadspin)
8 Comments:
Gradkowski was fucking awful, Jon.
Interesting...espn loves to "try out" new talent on its MOST watched programs...more often than not, they fail...poor decision-making.
This is much ado about nothing. A lot of coaches act antagonistically towards the media. And it's no surprise that Gruden would have defended his player against this report. He would have done the same thing if another outlet had reported it. So, not sure this is a big deal.
Gruden? Did they actually try to make MFN WORSE? He's fucking awful.
Gruden's a football guy. Kornheiser is a freaking womens tennis kind of guy. This works perfectly.
Plus, now we don't have to hear his corny-ass jokes anymore. Half the time Kornheiser's not even talking about football in the MNF booth!
Meh... MNF has been unwatchable for years; even moreso with Vanilla Ice Tirico and Chipmunk Face Jaworski in the booth. It won't be any different with or without Mr. Tony.
Tangentially, I listened to Chucky's interview with Tirico today, and I almost threw up from the smarminess and ass-kissing coming out of his mouth.
It's nowhere near as ironic/hypocritical as Bob Knight signing on with the big four-letter.
I'm sure there are dozens of people who already work at ESPN who have said similar things about Mort's "reporting" prowess.
Besides, it's not like Gruden is going to work for ESPN's news arm. Once a week he'll be sitting in a booth talking about a football game.