LUTZ, Fla. -- Jon Gruden has been out of the spotlight, seeking purpose and studying football in a large office building filled with game film since the unveiling of racist, anti-gay and misogynistic emails led to his 2021 ouster from the NFL. Nearly three years after he resigned from the Las Vegas Raiders, the Super Bowl-winning coach believes he's ready to roam the sidelines again at a different level of the sport: college football.
Gruden opened the doors of his personal coaching headquarters to CBS Sports last week for the first interview he has granted since resigning under pressure from the fallout of those emails. The 61-year-old discussed football, his past and present, and how he believes his future could unfold in a college town. The question is whether his messy NFL exit makes him untouchable as a candidate.
When asked whether he has any remorse about what he wrote in the emails -- and pressed on the subject -- Gruden responded: "I'm not even, you don't even ... I'm not even going to get into whether or not. The due process will take care of itself. I haven't even had my due process yet, so for me to sit here and say, 'Who said what?' You know, we'll just go through the process and leave it at that."
Gruden resigned in October 2021 amid his fourth season with the Raiders after The Wall Street Journal and New York Times uncovered explosive emails dating back to his time as an ESPN analyst between 2011-18. Gruden's emails were among more than 650,000 reviewed by the NFL as it investigated workplace misconduct within Washington's NFL franchise. In the emails, Gruden used anti-gay language and derogatory language to describe NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. He also accused Goodell of pressuring the Rams to draft Michael Sam, an openly gay player, in 2014.
In a separate 2011 email, Gruden used a racially insensitive metaphor, referencing a stereotype, to describe NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith. Gruden told the Journal in 2021 that his comments were excessive; he explained that his use of the phrase was intended to describe someone he felt was dishonest, though it was widely recognized as offensive.
The well-known coach, whose celebrity grew in the broadcast booth as an analyst on ESPN's "Monday Night Football" from 2009-17, became a pariah. Since his NFL ouster, he has avoided the media. Gruden offered only an apology via written statement on the day he resigned and another during a speaking engagement at an Arkansas touchdown club in August 2022. He admitted to the crowd he was "ashamed" of the emails.
Gruden sued the NFL in November 2021 claiming Goodell and/or others on his behalf leaked Gruden's emails to the media to get him fired. Gruden's attorneys in late July this year filed a petition to the Nevada Supreme Court asking it reconsider a decision made by a three-justice panel that allowed the league to move the civil contract interference and conspiracy case into arbitration.
While Gruden awaits his "due process," he has been content to study game film in his offices and mentor college and NFL quarterbacks who reach out for guidance. He's also preparing to become a head coach again -- and the college game has captured his interest.
"Yeah, I'm interested in coaching," Gruden said. "My dad was a college coach, I was a college coach at Pitt, my wife was a cheerleader at Tennessee when I met her. Hell yeah, I'm interested in coaching. I know I can help a team, I know I can help young players get better, and I know I can hire a good staff, and that's the only thing I can guarantee. But yeah, I'm very interested in coaching at any level, period."
CBS Sports spoke with several athletic directors and coaching agents to gauge whether Gruden could get an opportunity to be a college head coach. Some ADs hesitated to say whether they would interview him but all agreed Gruden would likely receive interest from some schools.
"If I was in the market right now, would I interview Jon Gruden? Yeah, probably," an athletic director at the Group of Five level admitted under the condition of anonymity. "There'd be no reason not to. Now, if I was at Florida, no, I'm not doing that. It's not the right fit, right time. A lot of that depends on the right job. One of the things with a Group of Five [school] is you can take a more calculated risk."
To that end, an SEC school administrator called Gruden "untouchable" as a coaching candidate.
During his years off the sideline at ESPN, Gruden was frequently discussed as a candidate for top jobs in the NFL and college, notably being linked to vacancies at Tennessee. He may need to temper expectations now.
Gruden still gets excited and animated when he talks football. On Monday following Week 1 of the NFL season, he was squinting while providing an impassioned breakdown of his work day at a massive 4,110-square-foot office space he purchased in 2015. The facility contains 13 rooms, organized like many coaching offices you have seen in the NFL and college football. He calls it the "Fired Football Coaches Association," though Gruden himself was technically not fired.
His 14-hour marathon day begins with a fistful of vitamins at 4 a.m. and a cup of coffee. He then checks his mail and communicates with contacts across the NFL and college football.
"There's a lot of guys around the league that vent, you know, after the game. Guys I support, just privately," Gruden said. "And I just kind of try to be a positive resource and help anybody I can. And then I just basically get to my films. I study the pro game mostly."
Gruden, who won Super Bowl XXXVII in 2002 as coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is not just sitting in front of a grease board drawing plays and pausing videos of games to burn time as a retiree. He's preparing.
"I'm not in here for the hell of it," he said.
College football is central to Gruden's focus perhaps because an NFL return is much more difficult to imagine. The college game is changing, and Gruden is trying to learn as much as he can about the intricacies of the sport: the transfer portal, recruiting, personnel and how recruiting services analyze and assign star ratings to high school players.
He says Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe joined him for a few days in Tampa to study offenses, and on a now-erased grease board, Gruden had detailed and studied the stats of the game's top 15 quarterbacks. During a casual conversation last Monday, he quickly references a big-time throw Texas' Quinn Ewers made on third down against Michigan two days prior.
Gruden rejected college football for years. He's listening now.
"If there's somebody out there that thinks they need a candidate, somebody to come in there, maybe lather it up a little bit, jazz it up a little bit, I'll be down here in Tampa," Gruden said. "I'll be ready to go if needed."
No one questions Gruden's love for football. He's such an addict that he launched a YouTube channel, "Gruden Loves Football," a series of videos providing football instruction and game breakdowns of NFL matchups. He also interviews stars across the league, including current New Orleans Saints QB Derek Carr, who started under Gruden on the Las Vegas Raiders.
That NFL exit hovers over the prospect of Gruden rejoining the coaching ranks. Controversial hires are not uncommon throughout college sports. Schools must decide how weigh Gruden's candidacy on a scale that includes Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze (resigned amid scandal at Ole Miss) and Ole Miss men's basketball coach Chris Beard (fired amid a since-dismissed domestic violence felony charge at Texas) on one end -- as coaches who received second chances at high-level job -- and disgraced former Baylor football coach Art Briles (fired amid a university sexual assault scandal), who has not.
"I would entertain [interviewing Gruden for an opening], but I would not do anything before full notice and proper understanding from the university administration, members of our board of trustees and other people who are in positions of influence concerning the program," one Group of Five AD said. "If you choose to go down the road, you have to have people at a pretty strong level of agreement or disagreement. Yeah, it could be considered, but it would definitely not be a unilateral decision."
Athletic directors usually employ search firms to conduct background checks on candidates. Another Group of Five AD told CBS Sports he typically polls reporters, NFL scouts and former employees who worked for candidates under consideration to "get a baseline" on coaches as people. Some ADs even hire former FBI agents to conduct deep background checks unrelated to any potential criminal history.
"If it comes to that, then I have to ask myself, is all that imputed risk worth the payoff?" the Group of Five AD said.
Another concern voiced by one AD is whether Gruden understands the complexities of the sport off the field, including NIL and roster retention with the transfer portal. Gruden has visited with managers at NIL collectives and player personnel directors to glean information on the inner workings of college football.
Furthermore, if a college team did hire Gruden, rival schools would undoubtedly use his old emails as a negative recruiting tactic.
"I know exactly what I'm all about," Gruden said. "It's not the first time people have thrown mud at me. If you're gonna get into this business, you know you're gonna have to deal with some of that stuff, but I'm really confident with whatever people want to say about me."
In late July, Gruden conducted drills outside Orlando with Jacksonville Jaguars QB Mac Jones and wide receiver Gabe Davis. He was in Central Florida this summer to help run drills with high school players, and he invited college athletes to study film with him in Tampa. When players visit, he sometimes conducts impromptu walkthrough sessions in the parking lot in front of his office building.
In the preseason, Gruden spent a week with the Kansas City Chiefs -- he sported a pair of their athletic shorts when CBS Sports visited -- and in May 2023, he served as a consultant for the Saints.
When it comes to football, Gruden's passion is apparent, and his opinions are as fiery as they were when he was the highest-paid analyst at ESPN a decade ago. He says the college game has become more like high school football and the NFL has become more like college ball, which he doesn't necessarily believe are a positive transitions.
"A lot of the passes, they're not even passes," Gruden said, "they're running plays with built-in pass adjustments. You guys call them RPOs. I call it a 'Ridiculous Pass Protection Offense.' I can't stand the clapping snap count.
"Don't tell me the game is evolving. Cavemen clapped their hands and pointed at their mouth when they were hungry before electricity. The game is dissolving from a sophistication standpoint. You don't see 21 personnel, you don't see 13 personnel, you don't see a quarterback get under the center and take a snap and reverse out and hand it to a big-time 'back who's 8 yards deep."
In the same breath, Gruden bemoaned shotgun runs, bubble screens, false starts and too many instant replay challenges.
If Gruden ultimately secures a new coaching opportunity, how would he build a staff and what would his offensive philosophy be in a sport that hardly resembles the one he grew up around at Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Tennessee? He points to the systems and philosophical shifts made by Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, who flipped Temple and Baylor programs with double-digit losses in Year 1 into double-digit winning teams in Year 3. Rhule was both malleable in philosophy and consistent with player development. Gruden also likes Iowa's Kirk Ferentz, whose ground-and-pound offense rarely lights up scoreboards but usually results in 10-win seasons. Gruden's scheme is his scheme, but he'll adjust, too. He envisions majoring in two-back and multiple-tight end sets.
"It's not the prettiest brand of football, people kind of kid about it a little bit, but you go play those guys, man. The guy's really good," Gruden said. "I think [Steve Sarkisian] has done a hell of a job at Texas. The brand of football they play, the open formations, and they can get after you, man. They look different to me."
Former NFL QB Trent Dilfer, who worked as an ESPN analyst before becoming a high school coach and transitioning into head football coach at UAB in November 2022, believes Gruden would be a "fantastic college coach."
"He was great on TV because he was his football-coaching self," Dilfer told CBS Sports. "Imagine that as a recruiter? I think it'd be fantastic. I wondered if that's what his next move was, and it makes a lot of sense. I'd hire him."
Recruiting is an aspect Gruden hasn't tackled since he was a receivers coach at Pitt in 1991, and even then, the process was much different. Now, with NIL contracts (and forthcoming revenue-sharing), there's much to learn about modern college football. The transfer portal is also incredibly intriguing as a tool to rebuild a roster overnight.
"If you got a bunch of guys that want to just recruit or just have a good time, you're going to get your ass kicked," Gruden said. "So the most important thing you have to do is hire a coaching staff that can relate to these players and teach what we want done. We would hire a good staff that technically can put together our system and have it executed on game day."
As the conversation at his office wound down, Gruden reiterated how focused he has been about returning to the sidelines as a coach.
"I'm planning on it. I'm preparing to do it," he said. "Just so we're on the same page, this is all about, 'What is Gruden doing?' He's got his YouTube channel, he's really working his ass off on football, and at the same time, I answered your questions, you know what I mean?"
Every visitor to Gruden's office receives a personal tour of the massive office space, which houses hundreds of playbooks -- including one he stole from Joe Montana when he coached with the 49ers -- and even more videotapes. Individual rooms are dedicated to teams Gruden coached as an assistant or led as a head coach during his 21-year NFL career -- from his days as an offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles to his final days as coach of the Raiders.
The walls in the hallways are adorned with mementos collected across his career, including numerous framed newspaper clippings. There's a smattering of photos with NFL dignitaries, friends and Pro Football Hall of Famers. Game balls are displayed on bookshelves, and a few more are lying on the floor in a spare room filled with Betamax tapes of practices from the 1980s and '90s.
"I don't have much else, you know? I got my wife, my family, the guy upstairs and football," Gruden said. "That's pretty much been it."
Tucked away in a closet is a computer server, humming in overdrive as it works to transfer game film to Gruden's war room where he studies and dissects offenses and defenses day and night, envisioning a path where those hateful emails are a thing of his past, a footnote in his career rather than a glaring sign giving potential employers pause from allowing him to return to the sideline.
Matt Zenitz and John Talty contributed to this report.
