The Gruden Super Bowl is the seventh in a row in which the winning quarterback will be a personal project of the head coach.
Quarterbacks Rich Gannon of Oakland and Brad Johnson of Tampa Bay started as Minnesota Vikings, Dennis Green traded both to the Washington Redskins and Norv Turner and eventually both found Jon Gruden.
Together, they meet in a Super Bowl.
In Oakland, Gruden was the first coach to hand Gannon the ball and tell him it was his. Without Gruden, Gannon still might be assembling model trains in his basement like he did when he was out of football in 1994 after shoulder surgery. He was considering Canada. Now he’s the league most valuable player.
When Gruden went to Tampa Bay, he was wary of Johnson. He preferred a mobile quarterback like Gannon. Johnson was wary of Gruden, so he called former teammate Gannon, who “raved” about him and told Johnson to trust him. Johnson and Gruden grew on each other.
“The more I was around him, the more I knew that this guy loved football and details mattered,” Gruden said.
“We still have some growing to do, but he’s a great pocket passer and he can really throw the ball.”
Gruden and his quarterbacks are the story of this Super Bowl. But there is a Super Bowl pattern surrounding quarterbacks and head coaches. It’s not where you get your quarterback; it’s how you develop him. And head coaches as much as offensive coordinators or quarterback coaches are the ones directly involved.
When New England’s sixth-round quarterback Tom Brady was emerging in his second season last year, Patriots quarterback coach Dick Rehbein died before the season. Head coach Bill Belichick, a defensive specialist, stepped in and filled the void, Brady said, spending hours on details with his young prospect to supplement the time offensive coordinator Charlie Weis already was spending.
The Bucs have an offensive coordinator-offensive line coach, Bill Muir, who oversees primarily the running game. They also have a quarterbacks coach, Stan Parrish. But Gruden watches over Johnson like a mother hen.
“He’s with me constantly,” Johnson said. “I have three one-hour meetings with Jon a day, let alone the time on the practice field.”
Relationship game
Baltimore Ravens head coach Brian Billick was offensive coordinator for Johnson at Minnesota and won a Super Bowl with a Tampa Bay castoff, first-round draft choice Trent Dilfer.
St. Louis Rams head coach Dick Vermeil and his offensive coordinator, now head coach Mike Martz, turned undrafted free agent Kurt Warner into the league MVP.
Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan, a former offensive coordinator, became one of John Elway’s closest friends on and off the field when they won two Super Bowls in a row.
Green Bay Packers head coach Mike Holmgren, another former offensive coordinator, wasn’t Brett Favre’s best friend, but he resisted the pressure and temptation to give up on the young gun before molding him into a Super Bowl winner.
Oakland head coach Bill Callahan was Gruden’s offensive coordinator, so his transition as Gannon’s mentor was seamless. Not even Gruden allowed Gannon to throw as much as Callahan did in this MVP season.
Stepping into the offensive coordinator’s role was Marc Trestman, who happened to be Gannon’s quarterbacks coach for a time in Minnesota. And the Raiders’ new “offensive assistant” is Jim Harbaugh, who also works with the quarterbacks, including Raiders third-stringer Rick Mirer.
Development project
Harbaugh and Mirer, of course, are former Bears quarterbacks who did not benefit from a consistent, hands-on, trusting relationship with their head coaches.
“The developmental part is huge,” Mirer said. “The guy who has the ball in his hands every play, it’s pretty important to be on the same page with. To me, it’s foolish to be the coach and you don’t have that. Some places just don’t and they’re not playing this weekend.
“What separates one guy from another isn’t very much. You don’t get here by accident. You have to fit the mold to a certain extent–strength and size–and then the little things that either make you good or not stick are the way they teach you and what the system is like and how friendly it is.”
Gannon and Johnson give Bears general manager Jerry Angelo less reason to spend that No. 4 spot in the draft on a quarterback. Elway in 1997-98 was the last first-round draft choice to win a Super Bowl and he got to Denver via trade from Baltimore, where he didn’t want to play.
Gannon and Johnson, who have walked the same career path as Jim Miller and Chris Chandler, add fuel to Bears’ discussions about the importance and role of offensive coordinators and quarterback coaches, not that John Shoop or Dick Jauron need any more pressure.
Were it not for the sheer persistence of Johnson and Gannon over the years, they wouldn’t have lasted long enough for Gruden to rescue them.
Persistence pays
Johnson was a ninth-round pick of the Vikings in 1992 when Gannon was Green’s starter. Johnson didn’t play at all his first two years and lobbied to play in the World League in Europe. Green once said he finally decided to give him a shot because Vikings players who played basketball with him convinced Green that Johnson was one of the best athletes on the team.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a journeyman. I’ve been more of a survivor,” Johnson said.
“It’s very hard to get a chance in this league. I think I’ve been a perfect fit every place I’ve been.”
The New England Patriots drafted Gannon in 1987 as a defensive back, but he was traded the same week to the Vikings when he informed the Patriots he wasn’t interested in switching.
Gannon still feels for young quarterbacks 16 years later.
“A lot of young players come in and are being forced to play right away and they’re not prepared,” Gannon said.
As the ideal situation, Gannon points to the New York Jets’ Chad Pennington.
“He had the opportunity to play behind Vinny Testaverde for a couple years. When he got the chance, he could do something with it,” Gannon said. “Some of these other young players who are forced to play right away and they don’t have success, it can ruin a young player.”
Getting the last laugh
Gannon and Johnson both would have preferred playing sooner than they did, of course, but on Sunday, they reach the pinnacle of their profession together.
Gannon remembers the day before the 1987 draft, Raiders coach Chet Franklin, now a Raiders scout, worked out Gannon.
“He told me to do some back-pedaling, so I asked him what position he coached,” Gannon said. “He told me defensive backs. I said, `That’s the end of the workout.’
“The Raiders had me slated to be a defensive back. It only took me 12 years to prove them wrong.”
