After winning a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay in January 2003, Jon Gruden’s win/loss record began to slowly trend down — finishing 45-51 in his last six years with Buccaneers— until he was ultimately fired. From there, he embarked on a sabbatical that very few coaches have ever had the opportunity to do. He leveraged his job as an ESPN broadcaster to learn from NFL and college coaches to build his playbook and improve his practices to prepare for his eventual return.



Mark Schlereth, who worked with Gruden at ESPN, said: ”He’s got, I mean, literally everything an NFL team has, as far as film and everything else.”



Gruden has had unprecedented access to film, install tapes, playbooks, and coaches. Schlereth also added that Gruden still gets up at 3:30 in the morning to get to his football office in Tampa Bay to watch film and do research. He hasn’t been out of the game, he’s just been in the lab cooking.



Gruden...