Columnist Dean Juipe: Raider fans shouldn’t cry about Gruden

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2002 | 9:01 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

As anyone who works for a living knows, you don't want or need an unhappy camper in the office or as part of your crew. A sour attitude can be infectious and at the very least it's distracting and counterproductive.

As such, Oakland Raiders fans shouldn't be too disheartened by the loss of head coach Jon Gruden to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Yes, it seems as if he's a first-rate offensive coach and at 38 years old it's easy to believe he could yet evolve into a maestro with many talents. But it's just as easy to say good riddance if the man is going to grouse and terminally complain, which is a path Gruden was already treading with the Raiders.

Had he stayed in Oakland his usefulness would have been negated by his disposition, which is reason enough for Oakland fans to get over their grief concerning his departure.

Gruden, who grew up in Tampa, was going to leave the Raiders after the 2002 season (when his contract expired) no matter what, and by "trading" him Oakland got a substantial package of dividends in return. Actually, the deal that went down this week is a windfall of sorts for Gruden's old team.

The Raiders get the Bucs' No. 1 draft choice and No. 2 draft choice this year, plus the Bucs' No. 1 pick in 2003 and their No. 2 pick in 2004. On top of that, Tampa Bay is sending Oakland $8 million to further compensate the Raiders for their supposed loss.

Under the gun by their fans for a series of missteps following the dismissal of coach Tony Dungy on Jan. 14, the Bucs obviously felt they had to do something dramatic. Acquiring Gruden qualifies, yet the price was very steep.

Gruden comes out ahead on the deal in that his contract with the Raiders -- which was paying him $1.5 million per year through the 2002 season -- has been ripped up and replaced by one that is good for almost $4 million per year for five seasons. It's not Steve Spurrier money, but it's a tax bracket or two up from where Gruden had been residing.

He tried to say that his lack of a direct line to team owner Al Davis was the root of his problem with the Raiders, but that seems highly unlikely. A better bet is that Gruden (perhaps prompted by his agent) was simply feeling underpaid and wanted out even after Davis approached him with an offer to renegotiate.

A year ago Gruden was tempted to leave the Raiders and take the head coaching job at Ohio State. And this winter he toyed with the notion of going to Notre Dame.

The point is, in his own mind Gruden had been looking to get out of Oakland for some time and when the Bucs appeased Davis with a multi-faceted deal that restocks both the Raiders' roster and their owner's bank account, the trade was made.

Davis has said he hopes to hire a new coach -- Dennis Green? -- within 10 days, and whoever he hires has some work ahead of him, yet so does Gruden in Tampa Bay. The Raiders can't go on forever with Rich Gannon at quarterback and they could use a better running game, yet those are budding problems that the incoming man will have just as good a chance of successfully solving as Gruden would have had he stayed.

I'd rather be the new man in Oakland with an additional four draft choices.