ALAMEDA — You had to figure ESPN would want Jon Gruden to help kickoff the season.
Gruden’s first regular-season game in his return to the field as head coach will be a home date on Monday night, Sept. 10, against the defending NFC West champion Los Angeles Rams at the Coliseum.
It will be Gruden’s first time in a regular-season NFL game since the 2008 regular-season finale against the Raiders as coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Gruden was fired after a Raiders win knocked the Bucs out of the playoffs and he was a Monday Night Football analyst for ESPN until owner Mark Davis finally talked him into returning to coaching.