With Gruden, Super Bowl Is Ex-Caliber

Jon Gruden versus the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl ... and the nation’s sporting media get only six days instead of the usual 13 to cover, hype, address and/or invent all the angles this loopier-than-fiction plot twist brings with it.

They’re on the clock already, scrambling to San Diego today to bring a waiting America the lowdown on:

Gruden and Al Davis. Who really built the Raider team that returns to the Super Bowl for the first time in 19 years? Who thought the quickest route was getting there with Jeff George and James Jett ... and who’s trying to convince everyone that Rich Gannon and Jerry Rice were his ideas all along?

Gruden and Bill Callahan. Wasn’t Callahan, Davis’ hand-picked “puppet,” dealt a no-win situation by having to follow a popular act with an aging roster that simply got a year older in 2002? Didn’t Callahan win his first trip to the AFC final by two touchdowns two years after Gruden lost his, 16-3?

Gruden and Gannon. If it’s true Gruden turned the longtime journeyman’s career around, why didn’t Gannon win the AFC title and the NFL’s most valuable player award until Gruden had relocated to Tampa?

Gruden and Tim Brown. Were the 2001 Raiders, who lost their last three regular-season games, too tense under Gruden, as Brown and other Oakland teammates suggested?

Gruden and Sebastian Janikowski. Isn’t this the reason Gruden gave for being so tense with the Raiders? And if so, isn’t that an entirely reasonable and rational explanation?

Gruden and Lincoln Kennedy. The Raider offensive tackle says Gruden was a shameless ham and camera hog during his years in Oakland. Just wait till the next six days in San Diego.

Gruden and Frank Middleton. The Raider guard has accused Gruden of creating a circus atmosphere with the Raiders during his final rumor-filled season in Oakland. Just wait till the next six days in San Diego.

It’s going to be wild, it’s going to be crazy, it’s almost going to be too easy.

But before we turn the rest of this football season over to “Chucky Does Sea World,” let us remember that two men had the chance to coach Tampa Bay in 2002 before the Buccaneers supposedly mortgaged their future and made the desperate, face-saving decision to trade two first- and two second-round draft choices for Gruden.

Bill Parcells had the job, then said no.

Steve Mariucci interviewed for the job, then went back to the San Francisco 49ers.

Parcells and Mariucci helped change the course of NFL and Buccaneer history ... and where are they today?

Mariucci is unemployed and Parcells now works for Jerry Jones.

Career opportunities. When one knocks, occasionally it pays to think awhile before slamming the door in its face.

Gruden, meanwhile, just fashioned the Buccaneers’ first trip to the Super Bowl, in 27 years, and the Buccaneers’ first road playoff victory, in seven attempts. Having failed to get to the big game the easy way -- in 2000, his Raiders had home-field advantage through the playoffs and lost the AFC final to Baltimore -- Gruden succeeded by taking the hard road -- in Philadelphia, in freezing weather, in the last game at the Vet, where Tampa Bay had been outscored, 72-22, in its previous three visits.

The Raiders have been established as 3 1/2-point favorites, but Gruden brings a couple of elements to the mix that make this the most interesting Super Bowl matchup since Brett Favre versus John Elway in 1998:

1. He knows the Raiders as well as any coach in the league.

2. He has a team that, coincidentally or not, is ideally suited to containing the Raiders’ quick short-pass offense.

Gruden’s Buccaneers have strong, aggressive cornerbacks and the NFL’s best defensive line. If the scouting report says the way to beat the Raiders is to box up their receivers and apply steady pressure on Gannon, Tampa Bay has the necessary ingredients. The Raiders haven’t faced a defense this formidable since the 2000 Ravens. Gruden remembers what happened then: Tony Siragusa pancaked Gannon and the Raider offense could muster no more than a field goal.

Destined to be swallowed up by the Gruden-versus-everybody watch is an interesting study for Charger fans clamoring to pick up a new quarterback because Drew Brees didn’t look so good during the last two months of his first season as an NFL starter.

Gannon is 37, finishing his 15th NFL season with his fourth NFL club.

Brad Johnson is 34, in his 11th season as a pro, with his third NFL team.

Both played for the Minnesota Vikings and the Washington Redskins. Both failed to cut it with Dennis Green, which is something San Francisco might want to consider before the 49ers hand Mariucci’s old job to the former Viking coach.

Together, Gannon and Johnson spent a combined 26 seasons bouncing around the league before landing in the Super Bowl. It can take a long time to groom a championship NFL quarterback, something the NFL forgot when Kurt Warner and Tom Brady flashed before its eyes the last three years.

Sometimes, as Gruden knows, it can take an entire career to become an overnight success.