Buccaneers: Keyshawn Johnson has strong words for Jon Gruden
By Rob Leeds
Former Buccaneers star Keyshawn Johnson doesn’t hold back on former head coach Jon Gruden.
Jon Gruden is out as a coach in the NFL, perhaps for the final time. His time with the Raiders has ended in an early resignation after the discovery of former emails filled with racist remarks, homophobia, and other unacceptable language. The story of Gruden as a coach is most likely over, but the discussion of the legacy he leaves, especially with teams like the Buccaneers, will persist.
Everyone knows the history of Gruden and the Bucs. Gruden joined a team that just missed the Super Bowl, won when it mattered, and the rest is history. Tampa even gave Gruden a spot in the Ring of Honor for his Super Bowl win.
The rest of Gruden’s time in Tampa was uneventful, and his return to coaching with the Raiders has fallen very short of the initial expectations. Las Vegas has been terrible in the draft and on the field, and even without an event like this to end his career, Gruden wasn’t long for the modern NFL.
As the rest of the football world turns their discussion to Gruden, Super Bowl winner and former player under Gruden, Keyshawn Johnson, addressed his former coach with a scathing indictment.
Check out Johnson’s statement here if you haven’t seen it yet.
Johnson didn’t hold back on his former head coach. From giving the credit for the formation of that Super Bowl team to Tony Dungy to calling Gruden a “used car salesman,” Johnson showed just how out of touch Gruden was from some of his players.
It is also fair to acknowledge the poor relationship between Gruden and Johnson back when they were in Tampa to give some context to this clip.
Regardless, Jon Gruden is done, and the conversations will start soon as to whether the Bucs need to leave their former head coach in the Ring of Honor. There is no precedent for taking people out of the ROH so far for the Bucs in their young history, but these recent events pose plenty of questions about whether that should become a practice going forward.
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