Keyshawn Johnson wouldn't take any shots at Chucky, who kicked him off the Bucs in 2003

It was sincere praise for Jon Gruden – almost a tender moment – when Keyshawn Johnson, of all people, heaped accolades on his former coach during the Monday Night Football pregame show.

Keyshawn is the anti-Sapp, showing class and maturity in his new career at ESPN.

On Monday, Johnson was baited by Chris Berman and Tom Jackson to talk about Chucky kicking him off the Bucs with pay in 2003.

Johnson wouldn’t take any shots at Gruden. He said Gruden is a “great football coach” and their troubles might have been a result of both he and Gruden being young at the time.

He went on to say that Gruden had tremendous receivers in Oakland (Jerry Rice and Tim Brown) but the Super Bowl winning team’s receiving corps in Tampa (Jurevicius, McCardell and Johnson) “was not great.” He credited Chucky’s play-calling for their success – 225 total catches in the regular season – and he praised Gruden for getting it done in 2008 with sub-par talent.

Keyshawn went on to express gratitude to Chucky for inviting him to return to the team last year.

Joe has always been a fan of Keyshawn. He may not have been a model teammate, but the guy worked his butt off on gameday. Also, Joe respects any rookie No. 1 pick who survived a 1-15 season with the Jets under intense New York scrutiny, like Keyshawn did.