Mark Davis beamed in delight not knowing what the future held.
The Raiders owner finally got his man after years of chasing then-Monday Night Football color analyst and former Super Bowl-winning head coach to take over the franchise he once led when Al Davis still cast a voluminous shadow over the entire organization.
"Once a Raider, always a Raider—never been more appropriate than today," Mark Davis said in an opening statement on that fateful day during Gruden's introductory press conference. "This is a big f'n deal."
At the time, the hiring dominated headlines.