Frown Prince

Oakland Raider Coach Jon Gruden has his virtues, but patience isn’t one of them. About 20 years ago, one poor fellow learned that the hard way.

Gruden was a waiter at a Bennigan’s at the time, just a kid working his way through the University of Dayton, where he also played quarterback. A customer had a few too many beers one night and got mouthy with the waitresses. Gruden had a word with him but it didn’t help.

“So I followed him into the parking lot and wound up punching him,” said Gruden, 37, almost wincing at the memory. “The girls kind of liked that. They started calling me the Bennigan’s brawler.”

Two decades later, Gruden has battled his way to the top of the NFL. He has directed the AFC West champion Raiders to their first playoff appearance since 1993, has found a way to thrive, even with team owner Al Davis peering over his shoulder, and has cultivated a grimace that’s fast becoming the most recognizable in sports.

Gruden, whose 12-4 team opens its playoff season Saturday against Miami, wasrunning short on patience after consecutive 8-8 seasons. That’s a good thing, said Fox analyst John Madden.

“You have to be impatient,” said Madden, who coached the Raiders for 10 seasons. “Anyone that has patience in coaching won’t be successful or isn’t going to be around long. It’s easy to talk about waiting around three to five years to rebuild and then coming out a better team on the other end. But you have to lose while you’re rebuilding. Usually, losing comes with patience.”

If that’s the case, Mike White and Joe Bugel were mighty patient men. White coached the Raiders in 1995 and ‘96; Bugel replaced him in ’97. The Raiders were 19-29 during that span, despite a roster loaded with high-priced players. Fan attendance was low, and team morale was even lower.

Bugel was fired after going 4-12, and Davis turned his attention to Gruden, a 34-year-old offensive coordinator with the Philadelphia Eagles. Gruden and his agent played hardball.

Agent Bob LaMonte said things such as, “Nobody’s lining up for this job,” and, “The Raiders aren’t one year away from the Super Bowl, they’re four games away from zero wins.”

That chafed the Raiders, but they couldn’t deny that “The Team of the Decades” was in serious decay. And they liked Gruden, whom Davis had met several times during a two-year span and even considered hiring to replace White.

“I think Al and Jon were the same guy,” Madden said. “Al Davis was a young guy that always had ideas, worked long hours. He was always thinking football; that was all he had in his life. He was a coach at a young age and an offensive guy. What Al Davis was in ’63 is what Jon Gruden was in ’95.”

Davis, 71, is still very much in the picture. He regularly attends practice and makes a habit of pulling Gruden aside for a few words as the coach heads off the field. From time to time, the owner will work with a player after practice. It’s not uncommon for Davis to corner a young offensive lineman, say, and hunker down to demonstrate a blocking technique.

“He’s got an amazing wealth of knowledge,” Gruden said of Davis, who did not respond to a request for an interview. “He can still sit down, grab a piece of paper and draw up a punt coverage. It’s a great asset for me to have him around, an opportunity for me to get better. [But] we don’t agree on everything.”

On this, they can agree: Gruden will be back next season, even though the Raiders have yet to exercise their option for the final two years of his contract. They have until after the season to do so. According to a league source, Gruden’s $700,000 salary will grow to $1.2 million next season.

That’s a steal, considering the way Gruden has rescued the Raiders on a relatively modest budget. While since-departed players such as Jeff George, Desmond Howard and Larry Brown were still on the payroll, the Raiders did not have the salary-cap room to do competitive shopping for free agents the last two seasons.

Gruden made do, though, cobbling together a team of lower-priced players such as running back Tyrone Wheatley, receiver Andre Rison, linebacker William Thomas and safety Anthony Dorsett, then turning it into a winner. Suddenly, the Raiders have restored their reputation as football’s last-chance saloon, a place where a washed-up star can rekindle his glory days, or where a young player who never caught a break elsewhere might flourish.

Most impressive was the way Gruden transformed aging quarterback Rich Gannon from a career backup to a Pro Bowl starter. Gruden believed in Gannon when most people didn’t, and was willing to cut loose the rifle-armed George. The move paid off on several fronts. Not only has Gannon ascended to stardom--he finished fourth in league most-valuable-player voting--but he shares Gruden’s strenuous work ethic.

Gruden, Gannon and the rest of the team have finally made a connection with the community, something the Raiders have struggled with since returning to Oakland in 1995.

“There’s a lot more Raider fans out there, especially at the 7-Eleven,” Gruden said. “Those guys weren’t talking to me four, five, six weeks ago. But now they say, ‘Good morning, Coach! How you doing? Big game this week!’ I don’t go very many places. I go to the 7-Eleven. It’s the only place open in the morning when I get my coffee and pump my car up with gas.”

Gruden’s work habits are legendary. He routinely arrives at team headquarters well before dawn, and his black Mercedes is usually one of the last cars left in the parking lot. He sleeps a few hours a night, goes through gallons of coffee, and turns away from the computer only to study video or hop on the Stairmaster.

He keeps the same hours now as he did earlier in his career, when he was an offensive assistant for San Francisco, receiver coach at Green Bay, then offensive coordinator for the Eagles.

His younger brother, Jay, is coach of the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League. Once, Jay visited Jon in Philadelphia in hopes of possibly joining his brother’s coaching staff. The brotherly reunion wound up feeling like boot camp.

“He was pounding on my door at about 4 a.m. and asking if I was ready yet,” Jay said a few years ago. “I was just getting into a dream. When we got to his office, he was nonstop on the computer, watching film, drawing up scouting reports. If I talked to him, I felt like I was totally interrupting him. I just sat there and watched film. A lot of coaches go in early, make calls, have coffee, read the paper. I was amazed.”

A solid work ethic was a top priority in the Gruden household. Jim and Kathy Gruden--parents of Jim Jr., Jon and Jay--moved their family all over the Midwest for football jobs. Jim, now a 49er scout, worked as an assistant coach at Notre Dame and Indiana. Before Jim got those jobs, the family bounced all over Ohio, from Sandusky to Galion to Bettsville to Tiffin to Dayton.

There were some lean years. Kathy, a teacher, chose to stay home to raise her three boys. Jim’s paychecks were enough to put food on the table but little else, so his wife sewed for the family.

“I made all sorts of things,” recalled Kathy, who now lives with her husband in Tampa, Fla. “I made pajamas, shirts, my husband’s pants. Jim would call the boys my little Ken dolls.”

Jim Gruden was firm about one rule with his sons: They couldn’t quit something once they had started it. That came back to haunt the family when young Jon took up the baritone horn, essentially a small tuba.

“We’d be pounding on his locked door, begging him to stop,” Jim Jr. recalled. “We’d pound harder and he’d just get louder.”

That was Jon, stubborn as a mule. He had a short temper too. He couldn’t stand it when his brothers would chew food loudly when he was trying to watch TV. He can barely sit in the same room with someone mindlessly jiggling a foot. Jon’s wife, Cindy, chooses to eat her cereal upstairs because the sound of smacking lips bothers her husband.

“We had a lot of trouble getting along when he was younger,” said Jim Jr., now a doctor and director of cardiothoracic imaging at Emory University in Atlanta. “Jon was so intense and focused. But I have a lot of respect for him now. He’s a very decisive person. He doesn’t waver. He’s not someone who will back down from anybody.”

That shows on Gruden’s face, especially during games. He has a made-for-TV scowl.

“That’s not Jon making faces,” Jim Jr. said. “That’s just the way he looks. He likes to lift that one eyebrow. If he’s at all engaged in a conversation, he’s got that frown.”

Some people are surprised to learn that Gruden, despite his workaholic tendencies, is a dedicated family man. On Halloween, for instance, he rushed home so he could take his three boys trick-or-treating.

When the Raiders beat Carolina on Christmas Eve, Gruden’s two older sons--6-year-old Jon Jr., nicknamed Deuce, and 3-year-old Michael--joined him in the locker room.

“They were in a hurry to get home and put the cookies out for Santa Claus,” Gruden said. “I think they’ve got more important things in their lives right now than [what’s going on with the Raiders]. But some day they’ll be able to be proud of what happened. I know my wife is very excited. My boys are just too young right now to understand it all.”

And Gruden himself, he is too focused on preparing for Miami to savor the moment.

“I really haven’t sat down and honestly felt a great sense of satisfaction,” he said. “When all is said and done, and I have a chance to go to the mall and wear my AFC West championship T-shirt, maybe I’ll feel those things. But right now, I feel a great responsibility to stay focused, be smart about how we use our time, and put together our best game plan.”

Patience, people. Patience.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Groovin’ With Gruden

After several disapointing seasons under other coaches, the Raiders have shown steady improvement under Jon Gruden’s leadership.

1998 1999 2000 Points 18.0 24.4 29.9 Points allowed 22.3 20.4 18.7 Rushing 107.9 130.3 154.4 Time of Poss. 28:51 32:06 32:13 Turnover ratio -8 +4 +17 Won/Loss 8-8 8-8 12-4 (BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS

SATURDAY

New Orleans

at Minnesota

9:30 a.m., Ch. 11

Miami at

Oakland

1 p.m., Ch. 2

SUNDAY

Baltimore at

Tennessee

9:30 a.m., Ch. 2

Philadelphia at

N.Y. Giants

1:15 p.m., Ch. 11