Jon Gruden Tries Play by Play for Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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