Gruden Brothers Look to Future After Rough 2009

Jon Gruden is a name millions of football fans know. After serving as an assistant with the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles, Gruden took the head coaching job with the Oakland Raiders in 1998 and quickly built Al Davis' "Just win, baby" squad into a force. In four seasons at the helm, Gruden's team won 38 games while losing 26 times. The Raiders also earned two playoff berths. That was enough to convince the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that Gruden was a genius. After all, he had resurrected the career of Rich Gannon, who threw for 4,000 yards twice during Gruden's tenure in Oakland. Tampa Bay certainly needed an offense-minded coach, and they got their man when the Bucs' general manager replaced Tony Dungy with Gruden after handing the Raiders a pair of first-round draft picks. It was Gruden, though, who received the best deal. Tampa Bay signed him to a five-year , $17.5 million contract.

Immediately, the Bucs found success. In 2002, Tampa Bay went 12-4 and defeated Oakland in the Super Bowl. Gruden was cast as a coaching super star. John Madden and other TV color analysts joked about his many sideline facial expressions, which ran the gamut from an angry scowl to a toothy grin.

Just a few hours' drive from Tampa, Jay Gruden was making his own mark in professional football. Jay, a prolific quarterback during his playing days in the Arena Football League, took the head coaching job with the AFL's Orlando Predators in 1998. His success was immediate. The Predators won the Arena Bowl in 1998 and again in 2000. After stepping aside for two seasons to return to the field as the Predators' quarterback, Gruden reassumed the head coaching job in Orlando in 2004 and went 30-18 in three seasons before things began to falter. First, Jay's Predators had one of the franchise's worst seasons (8-8) in 2007, and a 9-7 mark in 2008.

The slight decline had Jay Gruden hoping to reload with some fresh players, but he never got the chance. Instead, 2009 sent both Gruden brothers toward the exits in their respective leagues.

On Jan. 16, Jon Gruden was fired by the Buccaneers. Jay Gruden also lost his job with Tampa, where he had served under his brother as an assistant for seven years. Then, on Aug. 4, the AFL ceased operations. Despite suggestions that the league might return in some form, the AFL went into bankruptcy in December 2009. Jay Gruden's days with the AFL were over. After debuting as a quarterback in 1991 and spending the next 17 years in the AFL, Jay Gruden was, like his brother, looking for work.

So where are the Grudens today? With the AFL officially finished after 21 years as the "other" professional football league, Jay took a job as the offensive coordinator with the Florida Tuskers, a member of the new United Football League. The Orlando-based team played its inaugural season at the Citrus Bowl. The Tuskers went 6-0 in the regular season under head coach Jim Haslett but lost the league championship to Las Vegas. Haslett was named coach of the year, and quarterback Brooks Bollinger was named the league MVP after orchestrating Gruden's plan to much success.

After turning down an offer to be an assistant coach with the Oregon Ducks, Jon Gruden took a job as a TV analyst for ESPN. He covered games throughout the 2009 season. It's unclear whether he's likely to earn another opportunity to be an NFL head coach. Gruden jokingly said during a telecast that he hoped he could coach a Manning one day. Peyton Manning's contract with the Indianapolis Colts expires after the 2010 season. Eli Manning is signed with the New York Giants through the 2015 season.