The Oakland Raiders had been building a solid program under head coach Jon Gruden from 1998 to 2001. A strange series of events, however, led to Gruden being traded from Oakland to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before the 2002 NFL season.
Gruden's replacement, Bill Callahan, was actually the one who got the Silver and Black over the hump. After two early postseason exits in 2000 and 2001 with Gruden, Callahan and the Raiders blew through the AFC playoffs in 2002 en route to an appearance in Super Bowl XXXVII.
Awaiting Oakland in that Super Bowl, as history would have it, was Gruden and the Buccaneers.