Despite the fact that the entire world knows Jon Gruden is leaving the ESPN booth to coach the Oakland Raiders, he and Sean McDonough had to dance around the subject as they did one last broadcast together for Saturday’s AFC wild card game.
Gruden repeatedly rebuffed McDonough’s attempts to bring up the return to coaching, delighting Twitter, where many viewers sensed palpable tension between the two broadcasters.
It started from the very beginning, when Gruden quickly dismissed McDonough’s brief tribute by noting that nothing was official with regard to the Oakland job just yet.
Sean McDonough called today "bittersweet as "we say goodbye to Coach Gruden." Jon Gruden: "Thank you. Nothing's official yet." Lol.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 6, 2018
Things continued to go downhill from there, with Gruden repeatedly brushing off any mention of the Raider job — despite McDonough bringing it up on more than one occasion.
Sean McDonough has now mentioned Gruden leaving three times and Gruden just awkwardly laughs and deflects every time
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) January 6, 2018
It’s apparent that Jon Gruden has no interest in talking to Sean McDonough ever again after the next two hours are up.
— Darin Gantt (@daringantt) January 6, 2018
Sean McDonough's insistence to keep bringing up the fact Jon Gruden is leaving for the Raiders, and Gruden's refusal to acknowledge it might be the most captivating part of this game.
— Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) January 6, 2018
"Why is Sean McDonough digging at Gruden about the Raiders every play?"
Because Sean McDonough hates Jon Gruden with every single fiber of his being https://t.co/to9iq8Yacu
— Bruno Fernando Enthusiast (@ATVS_JakeNazar) January 6, 2018
I thought it was pretty obvious from Day 1 that Jon Gruden was not as comfortable working alongside Sean McDonough as he was with Mike Tirico.
But today they're just being openly hostile to each other. There's more bad blood in the booth than on the field.— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) January 6, 2018
Sean McDonough: "You're gonna coach here next year.
Jon Gruden: "This is no place right now to talk about the Raiders, is it?"
These two guys despise each other and will passive aggressively show it with their digs at each other all day.— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) January 6, 2018
Gruden and McDonough have all the chemistry of a divorcing couple staying together for one last Christmas
— Gregg Rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) January 6, 2018
McDonough is going to twist the knife on Gruden about coming back to coaching every chance he gets and I LOVE IT.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) January 6, 2018
Gruden is going to be very well-compensated in his return to coaching. The fact that it gave him an out to get away from McDonough is just a bonus.
