The Raiders would send out a press release two hours later Saturday night, and Jon Gruden had already begrudgingly accepted congratulations on air, but his hiring became official just as his last broadcast for ESPN was coming to an end.

Charles Woodson, who played for Gruden and now also works for ESPN, could be heard screaming in the background.

“Welcome home, Jon!” Woodson yelled. “Gruden! Go Raiders!”

He will officially be introduced as the Raiders head coach — for the second time — on Tuesday in a noon press conference. Fans who tuned into the Chiefs-Titans game to hear Gruden maybe address the situation were disappointed until Woodson made them feel all warm and fuzzy at the end.

Play-by-play announcer Sean McDonough took three shots at it during the broadcast, and Gruden got back to the entertaining game quickly.

The over-under on “Raiders” mentions was set at 3.5, those holding the under tickets were easy winners, at 2. Those who chose to do a shot at every mention didn’t pay too big a price when it was all said and done.

Yes, I watched the game with Raiders fans at Ricky’s Sports Theatre and Grill in San Leandro. Gruden still has a reserved parking space here, plus a lot of pictures of him on the wall. Everyone is excited, to say the least, and the 6-10 season that finished a week ago seems like 10 years ago.

“It’s great,” owner Ricky Ricardo said. “Who wouldn’t be excited? It can’t go wrong.”

The money is something fans laughed at over beers. I mean, $100 million? What does that even mean?

“It has no impact on the salary cap,” Sacramento’s Jas Randhawa said. “It’s not my money, so I am good.”

A season-ticket holder in Oakland, Randhawa has already signed up for seats in Las Vegas, where the team will move in 2020. He, a lot of the fans here and Gruden are in it for the long haul.

“I am excited about what he can do for the offense, get it back to where it was before,” Randhawa said. “I still do appreciate what Jack (Del Rio) did for the team … but super excited.”

There was a celebrity on hand at Ricky’s as well. Gorilla Rilla has been putting on the monkey suit for 22 years and cheering on the Raiders.

Before I let Rilla pound his chest over Gruden, I have to the share the most interesting thing I saw at Ricky’s on Saturday: Rilla eats and drinks with his mask on.

OK, back to Gruden, who returns to the franchise who gave him his first head-coaching job when he went 38-26 and won two division titles with the Raiders from 1998-2001.

“It’s exciting, change is always exciting especially when you know what you’re getting,” Rilla said (he doesn’t use his government name anymore). “Business is business and winning is winning. If you need a new coach, let’s do it.

“I was pissed off when Gruden left. He would come over to the Black Hole and talk to the fans, I think he enjoyed that. The second time around is going to be even better than the first. No one will be worried about the money when he wins.”

— Reported from San Leandro

(Top photo: Stephen Dunn/ALLSPORT via Getty Images)