By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
So Chucky is returning to the Oakland Raiders as their head coach and if there was ever a team and coach more suited for Las Vegas it was this pair — the Silver and Black with Jon Gruden with the headset.
Sales and marketing people in Las Vegas will have a field day with Gruden coming to Las Vegas in 2020 when the Raiders inaugurate their $1.8 billion, domed 65,000-seat palatial playground with a $750 million public subsidy.
In Major League Baseball, it’s not unusual for TV broadcasters to leave the booth for team managerial duties, so Gruden pulled an Aaron Boone and will meet his former media pals (a little joke there, folks) at a press conference on Tuesday when the Raiders will officially introduce Chucky as HC. Again.
LVSportsBiz.com got to thinking that Gruden will fit into Sin City quite nicely, because Las Vegas loves unique styles such as a haircut with a part down the middle and passionate people who say quotable stuff that you don’t quite understand sometimes but you know what they’re trying to say. He’ll also be making more in Las Vegas than Seinfeld, Celine and Penn & Teller, raking in $100 million over 10 years from the Raiders.
Gruden is a personable, exuberant fella as you figured out from his nine years on ESPN’s Monday Night Football and his previous stints as coach of the Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
So, LVSportsBiz.com thought he would be the perfect pitchman for lots of brands in Las Vegas and we imagined the kind of stuff Gruden would say, too. Here’s just five Gruden possibilities (wink, wink):
UFC — “Anderson Silva looks sluggish, man. The Spider needs a Spider 2 Y Banana protein shake.”
Pieology — “This place is great, man. They make your custom pizza. They’re making it look easy to make a pizza because it is easy!”
Sands Corp. — “I love this guy, Sheldon. Shellie loves talking to himself. I love that he does that, man! Because at the end of the day, you know he’s going to listen to himself.”
Centennial Hills Hospital — “Best hospital in the business at delivering babies. Man, in those situations you always catch those babies with two arms.”
Zappos — “Nobody does collisions like Tony Hsieh. Did you know I text at the same time when I order the best shoes in the world from Zappos. I love technology, man!”
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