Do You Love Football?! (28 page)

How do you disrespect it? By thinking you're a genius. By thinking you're really a smart guy. By starting to delegate more.

By coming to work a little bit later. Don't do your offseason research. Don't hold your players to any kind of standards. Let's cut back on the time they spend in the weight room and on conditioning. Let's take an extra day off. Let's just go fishing and have some fun.

This is a hard game. Not everyone can play it. Even fewer can play it well enough to win a championship. But when you do win one, maybe you gain even more confidence from it than you had before. Maybe your whole team does. A year ago we didn't have a single person at One Buc Place who had ever had a Super Bowl ring. Not one coach. Not one player. Not one person in our front office. Now we've got a bunch of them.

The people I've met who have made great accomplishments in different walks of life don't stop after the first one. You don't stop competing. You don't stop hungering for a championship.

If anything, you take more responsibility to come back and win another one.

For anyone who doubts that, particularly anyone who plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I have only one question: "Do you love football?"

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TO TELL THE STORY about a career that has been helped by so many different people along the way, we reached out-and received even more help. We want these individuals to know how much we appreciate their time, effort, support and caring. We couldn't have done it without you.

The very first person we wish to acknowledge is Cathy Hemming of HarperCollins. There is no question that you love football, Cathy, and that made for an ideal partnership from the start.

We can't thank Mauro DiPreta enough for his deft editing, wisdom, counsel and tremendous patience. As literary coaches go, you're one of the very best.

Thanks, too, to Joelle Yudin for her able assistance in handling the detail work at HarperCollins. We offer similar recognition to Mark Arteaga, who is as fine an administrative assistant as any coach could have.

We are thankful to Bob and Lynn LaMonte for their role in getting this project off the ground and for always being there to lend a hand. Basil Kane continues to set the standard for literary agents with his professionalism and integrity, and we are grateful for all that you did to make this book a reality.

In addition, we would like to express our gratitude to Jim and Kathy Gruden, Cindy Gruden, Monte Kiffin, Jeff Kamis, Zack Bolno, Tom Wagner, Derek Boyko, Ed Mahan, Jeff Blumb, Chris Callies, Armen Keteyian, Doug Hauschild, Ron Hines, Justin Maskus, Rhonda Carucci and Chris Glenn. -Jon Gruden,

TAMPA, F LORIDA

-Vic Carucci,

E AST A MHERST, N EW Y ORK

About the Authors

JON GRUDEN lives with his wife and three sons in Tampa, Florida.

VIC CARUCCI is the national editor for NFL.com. In twenty-five seasons of covering the NFL, he has won numerous writing awards and is a past president of the Professional Football Writers of America.

Carucci has co written a number of autobiographies, including Armed and Dangerous by Jim Kelly and Every Down, Every Distance by Wayne Chrebet.

Praise for Do You Love Football?

"Gruden has written a page-turner. . . . [Do You Love Football?!] offers some interesting insights into the career of the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl. . . . Gruden is one of the most colorful and charismatic coaches in the NFL and his storytelling is a strength."-St. Petersburg Times

"[Do You Love Football?!] provides valuable insight into the life of a football coach. . . . Written with humility and humor, which may surprise readers, given Gruden's fierce on-field visage."-Dayton Daily News

"A fast-paced, intense, and sometimes wisecracking memoir. . . . The effect is similar to sitting in a sports bar swapping stories with Gruden. . . . [He] serves up slices of himself, sprinkled with humor and heavily laced with football philosophy. . . . A fun, light-hearted look at what makes Gruden tick."-Tampa Tribune

"Gruden gleans wisdom from the colorful likes of Bobby Knight, Bill Walsh, and other legendary coaches with whom he has worked. Players, too, are sketched vividly and personally. . . . It's Gruden's own portrait that emerges most sharply: he's the scrappy private who almost imperceptibly becomes field commander. . . . He's also funny and self-deprecating. . . . The point of it all is that football isn't about winning but about learning how to win."-Publishers Weekly

"Just another book by a football coach about winning and hard work? Hardly. . . . Gruden takes us with him on a romp through his past. . . . [He] has lived life like he coaches: there's no sense being there if you don't give it your all." -Booklist

"Gruden fans will eat up this candid, entertaining memoir."-Dallas Morning News