Last weekend, UFC president Dana White raised eyebrows when he said that former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden once turned down the opportunity to acquire Tom Brady.
White claimed Brady and Rob Gronkowski were set to join the Raiders in 2020 before Gruden nixed the deal.
It seems hard to imagine, but former Raiders offensive lineman and current radio analyst Lincoln Kennedy explained what the coach’s mindset might have been at the time.
“Well, Jon Gruden is a little bit of a loyalist himself,” Kennedy said during an appearance on “The Zach Gelb Show” on CBS Sports Radio. “He was loyal to Derek Carr for all those years, believing in him for all the years that he had him.
“Even when Derek Carr supposedly tore his groin in one of the games towards the end of the year (in 2020), (Marcus) Mariota went in there and played pretty well and almost beat the Chargers that game. Derek still got the start the next week when he was supposed to be out for at least 10 days or two weeks. Jon Gruden has always been somewhat of a quarterback loyalist, maybe to error, but it’s always been a part of him.”
Carr is without question a quality NFL quarterback, one who is coming off a strong season during which Gruden resigned amid his email controversy.
Raiders fans have to be daydreaming about what would have happened if they added Brady and Gronk though, assuming White’s version of events is accurate.