NFL owners plan to select former coach Jon Gruden as the next commissioner of the NFL, according to sources, following the end of the regular season.
Gruden will replace Roger Goodell to become the 10th NFL commissioner. According to the same sources, NFL owners will make an announcement next week. Goodell will remain in place with limited decision-making power for the rest of the regular season.
“My wife’s second cousin was best friends with Gruden at Tennessee while he was a graduate assistant. Gruden said he was asked to take the position and he said yes,” a source close to Gruden tells us. “He said they met with him, laid out the whole plan, and Gruden came to an agreement.”
Gruden coached in the NFL for 10 years as a head coach for Oakland and Tampa Bay until 2008. Since leaving the NFL Gruden has worked with ESPN covering NFL and College Football.
Gruden would inherit a number of issues ranging from player conduct to concussions. One of the top issues Gruden faces as commissioner involves domestic violence. Additional sources tell us that Gruden replaced Goodell in a planned meeting about domestic violence with University of Texas head coach Charlie Strong.
“I was on a plane headed to Austin and I saw Gruden on the plane,” passenger Ted Striker, an Austin financial planner, tell us. “He was reading an NFL player handbook and had an NFL lapel pin on. Later I saw him watching the Ray Rice elevator video and taking notes. I told him that he would make a great commissioner, he just winked and smiled back at me.”
Additional sources tell us that if Gruden changes his mind he is 100% certain to take both the Michigan and Florida head coaching jobs next season. Gruden was unavailable for comment.
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