Jon Gruden still wants to coach again

It’s been nearly three years since Jon Gruden’s NFL coaching career ended, abruptly and unceremoniously after the systemic and selective release of items from the 650,000 document trove harvested during the investigation of the Washington franchise. He has had flirtations with teams like the Saints since resigning under duress with the Raiders, but his chances of getting back in the league remain slim, especially since he sued the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell over the leaked messages.

He was recently asked about possibly coaching in the college game.

“Yeah, I’m interested in coaching,” Gruden told CBSSports.com. “My dad was a college coach, I was a college coach at Pitt, my wife was a cheerleader at Tennessee when I met her. Hell yeah, I’m interested in coaching. I know I can help a team, I know I can help young players get better, and I know I can hire a good staff, and that’s the only thing I can guarantee. But yeah, I’m very interested in coaching at any level, period.”

If the goal was to get the word out, mission accomplished.

“If there’s somebody out there that thinks they need a candidate, somebody to come in there, maybe lather it up a little bit, jazz it up a little bit, I’ll be down here in Tampa,” Gruden said. “I’ll be ready to go if needed.”

He’s now 61, and he has gotten no offers at any level since leaving Las Vegas. He recently launched a “Gruden Loves Football” YouTube channel, which is doing well so far. Watching the content is a reminder of why he was such an effective ESPN analyst. (His delivery and presence is much more engaging than one of the newest members of the FFCA, one who despised the media and who has not become fully connected to the media matrix.)

Meanwhile, he continues to pursue justice in a court of law, as the NFL continues to try to force his case to arbitration.

“The due process will take care of itself,” Gruden said. “I haven’t even had my due process yet, so for me to sit here and say, ‘Who said what?’ You know, we’ll just go through the process and leave it at that.”

The lawsuit isn’t about whether he should have been forced to resign. It’s about whether someone intentionally interfered with his contractual relationships by leaking the emails, first to the Wall Street Journal and then, when that didn’t do the trick, to the New York Times.

Regardless of whether the truth comes out (and here’s hoping it does), the bigger truth for Gruden is that he loves football and wants to be back in the game.