Inside Jon Gruden’s disastrous second run with the Raiders

The pursuit lasted six years and required 15 cross-country flights.Mark Davis hid them all from the four head coaches he churned through after his father’s death in 2011. The Oakland Raiders were now his team, and in his mind, there was only one man who could save them.Jon Gruden had done it before. It was in Oakland where Gruden first became a coaching star, the fire-breathing offensive wunderkind who screamed and scowled and boasted to reporters that he set his alarm for 3:17 each morning. From 1998 to 2001 he lifted one of the NFL’s signature franchises back to relevance, only to be shipped to Tampa Bay in the middle of the night for two first-round picks, two second-round picks and $8 million in cash — Al Davis’ way of ending a contract dispute. Twelve months later, Gruden’s Buccaneers routed his old team in Super Bowl XXXVII.Advertisement