Jay Gruden Finds a Way to Earn Arenabowl Appearances
John Klaers
Wednesday August 16, 2000
As a true-blue Predator fan, I hated Gruden. Not personally of course, but the kind of hatred born out of fear, respect, and frustration. Fear, when the only thing standing in the way of a successful season was Gruden & Co., respect for his playing ability and competitiveness, and frustration because he always seemed to come up with just enough to overcome adversity and be victorious.
Remembering his playing days, the thing that stood out to me was his toughness. We couldn`t hurt him. Oh, we sacked him. We hammered him to the floor, the walls, we sandwiched him between two players, and laid him out many times. Often, he was slow to get up, but get up he did. Then frustration was born out when on the very next play he`d throw a touchdown on you just to show you what kind of player you were dealing with. All the Predator fans watching, found themselves asking: "Who is this guy, how do we stop him, and how does he keep doing that?".
 Jay Gruden paces the sidelines during a regular-season game against Milwaukee Image courtesy of Drew Kennedy |
In many ways his coaching career mimics his playing career. As a coach, he`s overcome adversity, made adjustments and come up with just enough creativity to be victorious. Last year, he surmounted injuries, off-field distractions ("Any given Sunday"), not to mention an 8 – 8 regular season record to get to the Championship game for the second time. This year there have been fewer distractions, but there were some injuries. The team got knocked down a few times, but managed to get back up and earn a record of 11 - 3.
Gruden is as competitive a coach as he was a player, and that is reflected in his players today. There is still another similarity. As a player, Jay Gruden won a Championship every other year with the exception of 1996 when he won back to back titles starting in 1991 when he won it all. Continuing with the pattern of “every other year,” he didn`t win in 1999 and is now in position to win in 2000.
The team that will try to stop him is the Nashville Kats, a team that right now is hotter than a meteor and very talented. Does he have any more tricks in his bag? If he does and he can win the Championship in 2000, teams, coaches, and fans around the league will once again ask, "Who is this guy, how do we stop him, and how does he keep doing that?"
John Klaers was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2000 to 2001.
