Jon Gruden Will Be Reinstated Into Bucs’ Ring Of Honor
February 28th, 2025
Jon Gruden will be back — in the Ring of Honor.
A great wrong has been righted.
Last night, it was officially announced that Team Glazer decided to reinstate the winningest coach in Bucs history, Chucky, the man who got the Bucs their first Super Bowl win, back into the coveted team’s Ring of Honor.
Well done, Team Glazer. Well done!
Chucky was in the Ring of Honor but his name was unceremoniously removed after personal, vile if not grossly insensitive emails from Chucky were leaked. Some allegedly were directed toward Team Glazer.
The emails were typed many years ago when Chucky was an ESPN analyst on “Monday Night Football” and not coaching.
Joe really had a problem with the decision to remove Chucky’s name from the Ring of Honor. Were his emails despicable? Absolutely! But Joe is very much against attempts at whitewashing history.
And in Joe’s mind, removing Chucky’s name from the Ring of Honor was an attempt to rewrite Bucs history. Like it was an attempt to pretend Chucky never worked for the Bucs, as if his coaching didn’t finally push the Bucs over the hump to win the team’s first Super Bowl.
Joe is a history nut and treasures history. Joe believes all history, no matter how distasteful, needs to be remembered.
Rather than lazily try to cancel Chucky, Joe thought then and thinks now that those awful emails should be used as a teaching and learning tool.
Canceling Chucky did nothing more than try to sweep an issue under a rug. How can we ever advance as a sophisticated society if we don’t learn from mistakes?
Former St. Louis Cardinals play-by-play man Jack Buck once said when Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris’ then-season record of 60 home runs in 1998, “Pardon me for a moment while I stand to applaud.”
So pardon Joe for a moment as he applauds Team Glazer for doing the right thing and reinstating Chucky into the Bucs’ hallowed Ring of Honor.
February 28th, 2025 at 12:24 am
HOW DARE THEY UNCANCEL SOMEONE WHO TOLD OFF-COLOR JOKES IN PRIVATE! I’M GOING TO BOYCOTT!!!! WHO’S WITH ME!!!
February 28th, 2025 at 12:30 am
About time.
February 28th, 2025 at 12:39 am
I agree, a wrong was righted. Well done Glazer family. One shows their character when they realize maybe they had a misstep and then extended an olive branch to the party that offended them. It is not east to do. If more people did this the world would be a better place.
February 28th, 2025 at 12:40 am
Easy not east.
February 28th, 2025 at 12:55 am
AWESOME!!!
The left wing woke PC cancel culture is over. No one gives a crap what you said in private last week or 10 years ago. No one gives a crap what you say in public because… Free speech.
America being made great again!
February 28th, 2025 at 12:56 am
Good for Gruden
February 28th, 2025 at 1:42 am
Personally, I felt the entire situation had been blown out of proportion. They were emails from his past distant past.
Woke had nothing to do with it though. Media did.
I never cared for Gruden’s language or behavior toward players, but removing him from the RoH was wrong.
February 28th, 2025 at 2:18 am
Gruden was betrayed and set up. All concerned have stated that those Emails were not what Gruden was about. All of the “victims” out there these days forced the Glazers hand. A shame…
Welcome home Jon!
Go Bucs!
February 28th, 2025 at 2:57 am
Gruden lied to his players, was a great OC, far from the greatest HC, not an honorable man, but should not have been removed from the ROH. Great at using players other people coached. Sucked at developing his own players. He was the brains to get the team over the hump. Monte Kiffin was the heart. I was happy when the Bucs hired him, and happy when they fired him. He has his place in Buccaneer history. Please keep it that way.
February 28th, 2025 at 4:07 am
Chucky was put in a timeout. He wasn’t allowed to be in the ring of honor till he ate all his vegetables. He’s all grown up now, and a much better person. Good to have him back.
February 28th, 2025 at 4:07 am
1 sparkybuc … ‘Gruden lied to his players, was a great OC, far from the greatest HC, not an honorable man, but should not have been removed from the ROH.’
Lots of JBFers over the years have shared that opinion that Chucky was a great OC. I don’t see why; he was dual-hatted while here and the performance of our offense was never all that great.
o 2002 (12-4): Offense ranked #18 (345 pts – 21.6 PPG)
o 2003 (7-9): Offense ranked #18 (301 pts – 18.8 PPG)
o 2004 (5-11): Offense ranked #23 (304 pts – 19.0 PPG)
o 2005 (11-5): Offense ranked #20 (300 pts – 18.8 PPG)
o 2006 (4-12): Offense ranked #31 (211 pts – 13.2 PPG)
o 2007 (9-7): Offense ranked #18 (334 pts – 20.9 PPG)
o 2008 (9-7): Offense ranked #19 (361 pts – 22.6 PPG)
That’s an average ranking over 7 years of #21, based on an average Points Scored of 308 Points (19.3 PPG).
Chucky’s saving grace is that he had Monte Kiffin as his DC the entire 7 years he was our HC/OC, and our defense those years was always one of the best in the NFL.
Other than us not sharing the belief that Chucky was a great OC, I agree with the rest of what you wrote Sparky. The price we paid in trading for him … Tampa Bay’s 2002 and 2003 first-round draft picks, 2002 and 2004 second-round draft picks, and $8 mil … was absolutely ludicrous, and it screwed our team for many years. No NFL team can give up that many high picks and expect to compete well.
February 28th, 2025 at 4:08 am
Bully for the glaziers for righting a wrong. A takes a big man to do that.
Even if it stings.
I’d still like to see chucky get another shot in the nfl personally. He added character. For better or for worse.
February 28th, 2025 at 5:45 am
Disagree with your headline. What chucky did was wrong. He’s a d@@(#=.
February 28th, 2025 at 6:25 am
Hey David, please keep politics out of sports, but if you must, canceling NFL because of the anthem, canceling bud light, Both sides cancel because canceling is an OLD thing, not a new one. it just never had the name canceling.
February 28th, 2025 at 6:37 am
Love that photo of Gruden! It’s like the Lombardi is a burning torch! 🔥 🏆
February 28th, 2025 at 6:42 am
Gruden is the poster boy for right place/right time and for wrong place/wrong time.
Jon got to coach a well developed team that Dungy and Kiffin built. He had to get there of course but once he got to the SB, his new team faced his old team that still ran his offense. Players still had to play but what an advantage. Right place, right time.
Then the idiot puts his vile thoughts in writing instead of picking up the phone and saying his garbage. Locker room talk that bit him where it hurt the most, taking away his first love. Wrong place, wrong time.
All in, his game day skill set is great. His team averaged a whopping 10 minutes advantage in time of possession. I’d argue that stat has far more value than total points in a season. Add to that a scoring defense and the job is to control the clock, not rack up yards and points.
Developing teams as a whole? Not so much. His second stint with the Raiders was mired in mediocrity because the right players weren’t being drafted and who they got weren’t being developed.
February 28th, 2025 at 6:44 am
Right move
February 28th, 2025 at 7:49 am
Thank you Glazer family for doing what is right. This proves that people can learn from their mistakes. And I’m not talking about Gruden. He has a right to have private conversations.
I’m talking about the wokeism that led to Coach Gruden being removed.
Now maybe the media and others can do the same and let him Coach or Commentate again.
Congratulations, Coach Gruden. Still the most thrilling season in my opinion.
February 28th, 2025 at 8:01 am
That might’ve been the dumbest thing the Glazer’s have ever done since they re-signed Michael Clayton.
February 28th, 2025 at 8:01 am
Again, that stat is more indicative of Kiffin and that awesome defenses contributions. Ok, and Alstott, but Gruden never impressed me as a QB whisper. When it came to QBs he was like an alcoholic in a liquor store. He liked them all,and seemed to be on a perpetual manic QB bender.
Regardless of the artist, you can still appreciate the art
February 28th, 2025 at 8:03 am
Jon Gruden is a hometown hero who brought the (first) ultimate victory to The T. I love the guy and he will never have to pay for drinks anyplace in which I am also present. Chuckie is part of Buccaneers lore now and forever. Cheers to this news!
February 28th, 2025 at 8:29 am
🇺🇸 🏈 👍
February 28th, 2025 at 8:33 am
Could this be the first step in becoming the Bucs coach next year?
February 28th, 2025 at 8:36 am
He should thank his former employer for putting his Employee Of the Month picture back on the wall, despite everyone at the company knowing he said the former employer should bleep his bleep.
I can’t think of many other companies where that happens.
Just like Employee of the Month, isn’t a Ring of Honor meant to celebrate someone, not be a history lesson. If it was a history lesson than why don’t we have the racist Culverhouse in the Ring of Honor? Why isn’t Falcons President Rich McKay, the man who created the 1994-2003 Bucs teams, in the Ring of Honor?
The Ring of Honor isn’t a history book. It’s who we choose to celebrate. We chose not to celebrate our division rival’s president and a racist who came to Tampa to fund the area’s first professional sports team.
Considering how subpar Gruden’s offensive scoring was over his 7 years here and that he didn’t run the mighty defense, but did run one of the NFL’s best GMs out of town, I respect anyone not doing backflips to celebrate him.
If we are strictly talking about impact on Bucs history, than Gruden shouldn’t have been considered for the Ring of Honor until after Rich McKay was already inducted.
Where am I wrong?
February 28th, 2025 at 8:55 am
I applaud the Glaziers for being the better person to admit they were wrong and to fix it and make things right again…
Good for them!
February 28th, 2025 at 8:55 am
Wonder if his statue is still in 1 Buc Place.
February 28th, 2025 at 9:02 am
@tommoore4pres… Rich Mcay sucked. Jerry Angelo and Sam wych drafted the sapp, brooks, rhett, and lynch and Dungy tabbed Ronde as his guy. Mckay didn’t do much in personel untill 2000 and thats when things took a dive. Mckay gave out huge contract extentions to everyone like brad johnson and martin gramatica and put us in cap hell. The BEST thing Mckay has done for us is lead the FAlcons astray!
February 28th, 2025 at 9:15 am
Great story Joe
February 28th, 2025 at 9:43 am
Wow comments are much different than I was expecting. Good Job Glazers. Gruden deserves his spot in the ROH.
February 28th, 2025 at 9:49 am
Yes it is Henry, never took it down.
February 28th, 2025 at 9:49 am
Glad common sense has returned!!!!
February 28th, 2025 at 9:52 am
One thing with Gruden… look at his Raider days. He had a 4 year run where he had them at the top and it all blew up when he left. He had average guys and made them into a top offense. Gruden the gm was the problem.
February 28th, 2025 at 10:26 am
Way to go. Way to go. I’d love to see his lawsuit take out Goodell but that’ll likely never happen.
February 28th, 2025 at 10:55 am
Joe in this acting in this article like writing a few “microagressions” in decade old emails is the worst thing ever…
Gruden was wrong but geez, lets not overreact about some emails…..we’ve seen far worse stuff go on in the NFL.
February 28th, 2025 at 11:14 am
Kicking him out of the Ring was a knee-jerk reaction by the Glazers. In a way, I don’t blame them at the time, as Jon had attacked one of them personally in the e-mails. For me, I hated it, but understood their reaction.
Now it seems that both sides have “grown up”, and it is a very welcome gesture to put him back where (in my opinion) he belongs. I would also like to hear Lane’s story in full.
February 28th, 2025 at 11:22 am
Racist piece of garbage.
He has no honor.
Joe, you got this one wrong.
What did he call Bryan Glazer?
Let us decide…
February 28th, 2025 at 11:34 am
I love Gruden, but the price paid to the Raiders depleted young talent for many years.
Gruden’s biggest mistake was bringing in Allen as GM.
February 28th, 2025 at 11:35 am
More woke bites the dust.
February 28th, 2025 at 11:37 am
Gruden writes despicable things then gets firec…that’s calked woke by our current rights.
Pathetic. Have some guts snd conviction to call it what it is…Pathetic.
February 28th, 2025 at 11:57 am
Good to see Gruden get back in. Everything is “woke” to people until it’s about them. Then it’s a big deal lol. Free speech doesn’t save you from the consequences.
February 28th, 2025 at 12:05 pm
Love the mouth breathers with the “left” “cancel” “woke” crap. What about banning books in school libraries throughout the “free” State of Florida?
February 28th, 2025 at 12:13 pm
Say Joe, Best Buc news I have heard in quite a while. Gruden got shafted by the commish for comments made years prior. Who amongst us have not said a thing or two ten years ago we regret saying? And how come not one player other than throw me the ball Keyshon had a negative comment about him? Welcome back home John Gruden.
February 28th, 2025 at 12:18 pm
Great point. Keyshawn hates Gruden but defended him, as did Sapp and many others.
February 28th, 2025 at 12:43 pm
Andrew Tate and Gruden both coming to Tampa.
SMDH. Wait until the recession hits…you won’t be worried about woke anymore.