00:00John Gruden's back, but John Gruden is back in a very weird way.
00:05John Gruden's going to do play-by-play for the Tampa Bay Bucs
00:09for one of their preseason games coming up.
00:15I don't fully understand this.
00:19Breaking news this morning on the flagship radio station
00:25for the Tampa Bay Bucs that John Gruden will be doing play-by-play on radio
00:32for the Tampa Bay Bucs this preseason.
00:39Okay, I know the idea of listening to a radio play-by-play broadcast
00:46for an NFL game is not exactly interesting.
00:50I know it's boring, but what are we doing?
00:56This is one of the strangest stories of recent memory.
01:02I love John Gruden, but John Gruden is not a play-by-play broadcaster.
01:08John Gruden is a color commentator.
01:11John Gruden is there to add a lot of context
01:14into what exactly a game was happening on the field.
01:18Doing play-by-play, he was recently on the Ira Kaufman podcast,
01:23and he said, quote, I want to be play-by-play.
01:26You know, Frank Gifford, he transitioned into a play-by-play role.
01:30I would like to transition.
01:32I had nine years of watching these guys, Tirico,
01:35and I'd like to give that a shot.
01:39I mean, we don't know whether it is part of the game or all of the game,
01:45but this is a guy who has a civil lawsuit pending with the NFL
01:51and against Roger Goodell over the events that led to his firing
01:56from the Raiders in 2021.
01:58Emails that Gruden had sent when he was working for ESPN
02:02got picked up, and they were then put into an investigation
02:06involving the Washington Commanders franchise
02:09that ultimately leaked out and got Gruden fired.
02:13He didn't resign.
02:14He was fired.
02:15I guess technically he did resign, but he was pushed out,
02:18and he is suing for that investigation
02:21and how those emails came out.
02:24But, so, I mean, this is radio as far as I can tell.
02:30I don't think this is TV.
02:31I think this is radio that he's going to be doing this.
02:35But he is still so popular in Tampa
02:38that I think people in Tampa will love it.
02:40I think people in Tampa will be all about it.
02:42But he is suing the NFL, and he's going to be calling an NFL game
02:46for a flagship radio station for the Tampa Bay Bucs.
02:50And you have to wonder how exactly that gets received in New York
02:55by Roger Goodell and the league.
02:59Now, these teams can do what they want,
03:00and I don't know what the language is for a local radio contract
03:04as to does WDAE have full control over who gets to call their games.
03:10But, wow.
03:12Okay.
03:13John Gruden wants to be the next Mike Tirico.
03:16So, okay.
03:19Sure.
03:19Let's see what he sounds like.
03:21I think play-by-play is far more difficult than people realize.
03:26I think color commentating is the perfect place for John Gruden.
03:30I think that's where you show your personality.
03:33Guys who do play-by-play have no personality.
03:36Mike Tirico has no personality.
03:37It's on purpose.
03:39Guys who call games are not supposed to have personality.
03:42That's why Chris Collinsworth exists on the Sunday Night Football broadcast.
03:46That's the guy that's supposed to show you personality.
03:49That's the guy that's supposed to provide some level of humor or insight or something.
03:56That is what John Gruden is there for.
03:59I don't know why John Gruden wants to call play-by-play,
04:02but maybe he sees that there's more money in play-by-play.
04:06There is more money in play-by-play.
04:07But this is like Dennis Miller trying to do color commentary.
04:12It didn't work with Dennis Miller calling color for Monday Night Football.
04:15I'm not sure John Gruden doing play-by-play is going to work for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
04:21We'll see how it goes.
04:22But right now, I would say that's going to be a fail for the preseason for John Gruden.
04:28I would say that's going to be a fail for the preseason.
04:28I would say that's going to be a fail for the preseason.
