Barber: Jon Gruden looms large as Raiders open training camp

NAPA

This is the summer of JG in the Bay Area. And it’s Just Glorious.

It’s a rare season of football here, with the 49ers and Raiders each entering their training camp on a wave of excitement. And it’s all thanks to a couple of JGs. Down in Santa Clara, Jimmy Garoppolo has almost single-handedly floated the 49ers’ boat, injecting widespread giddiness through a combination of late-season victories and Marlboro Man charisma.

The Raiders opened camp Friday, and the media presence was oversized for a team coming off a disappointing 6-10 season. The reason was obvious. Folks were there for a piece of Oakland’s JG - Jon Gruden.

These teams are crazy if they don’t make every effort to go out and sign Jared Goff, Josh Gordon and Jimmy Graham. The 49ers already have Joshua Garnett. Cagey move. There should be preseason ceremonies at Levi’s Stadium and the Oakland Coliseum honoring Jane Goodall, Jeff Gordon, Jerry Garcia and Judy Garland. Maybe one day they’ll make a movie about the experience. It will star Jake Gyllenhaal, Jeff Goldblum and Jennifer Garner.

Gruden’s return to Oakland may be the only thing that could have distracted Raiders fans from the regression of 2017, or the betrayal of the team’s impending move to Las Vegas. Those thorny issues were all but forgotten Friday, thanks to the pugnacious man in black.

At one point Monday, as the Raiders went 11-on-11 on the east field behind the Napa Valley Marriott, Gruden suddenly barked, “Where’s the music at?”

The fans filling the bleachers cheered. The coach turned to them, beaming, and raised his hands in query, as if to ask, “Can you believe this?” He added, “We need music!” and they cheered some more. The DJ stationed behind the south end zones - NFL practices have DJs now - got another track slapping.

“I love fans that are rooting for the Raiders,” Gruden said after practice. He wore a Raiders visor rather than a full cap, leaving his scalp pink beneath his thinning blond hair. “The more the merrier. All the critics have to sit over there in the cheap seats.”

Critics? Gruden has critics? If so, they are making themselves scarce. Only that other JG, Garoppolo, has a similar popularity rating in the Bay these days. Raiders players sound ready to run into a goal post ?for Gruden, and we in the media mostly eat from his hand like baby deer. Boosters treat him like the second coming. Which of course he is.

Last week, Gruden hosted sort of a fan appreciation party at Ricky’s Sports Theatre and Grill in San Leandro, the neighborhood bar of Raider Nation. He paid for dinner and music for nearly 600 people, some of whom reportedly began lining up at 7 a.m. for an event that didn’t begin until 4 p.m.

Gruden remains a magnetic force. It’s due to his NFL track record, which included a Super Bowl title with the Buccaneers, and the visibility of his work on “Monday Night Football.” But it also springs from the sheer strength of his energy, and his will. Gruden carries himself as if he’s ?100 percent assured of success, and you’d be a fool not to follow along.

Here are some of the early reviews from Raiders players.

Veteran linebacker Derrick Johnson: “Man, Jon Gruden’s a special coach. He’s kind of like a player on the field. He’s very energetic. He’s loud. He’s talking noise, he’s talking trash. He wants to win. You can see his passion. As a player, I can appreciate that. I can appreciate that he’s all in. Man, it’s a different kind of sense of urgency that we have, going out to practice on the first day.”

Rookie offensive tackle Kolton Miller: “Man, there’s not really a time that I ever see Jon Gruden not excited. He’s just a guy that can pump you up.”

Quarterback Derek Carr: “I don’t know if that man sleeps. I don’t know if he’s slept yet.”

During Monday’s interviews, defensive players made it clear that Gruden largely keeps his hands out of the defensive pie, leaving that side of the ball to coordinator Paul Guenther. Gruden noted that at the start of practice, he forces himself to step back and leave the fundamentals to his assistants.

But he is a constant, relentless presence. He stalks the practice field, alternately pumping up his players and lightly mocking them. He yells “It’s Cover 2! Two-deep Cover 2!” as his offense lines up to run a play against air. When he chats one-on-one with players, it’s frequently with guys who are the least chatty in public life, like Marshawn Lynch and Gareon Conley. It’s as if he’s trying to draw everybody into the big Gruden tent.

I asked Carr if Gruden is the same guy in quarterbacks meetings that we hear echoing across the field, or if he is a little more subdued. Carr laughed.

“I’ve had people come up to me and be like, ‘What was he yelling at you about in the meeting room?’” he recounted. “I said, ‘Oh, nothing, we were talking about good things.’ He is just energetic all the time. That’s just him. He is so passionate about the game of football. I don’t think anyone can be mad at that.”

The question is how far charisma can carry the JGs. Garoppolo is a legitimate sensation, but you’d have to figure his pool of good will is shallower. If he were to struggle in the first half of the 2018 season, those five wins to close 2017 will seem very far removed indeed, while his $74 million in guaranteed money rises up like a dark cloud.

Gruden has more leash, and not because he signed a 10-year, $100 million contract. Raider Nation pined for him for 17 years, and is thrilled to have him. If Oakland goes into its bye week with a 2-4 record, you can bet that Carr, or Paul Guenther, or training-camp holdout Khalil Mack will catch more flak than the head coach.

But that’s not to say Gruden is completely fireproof. There is no such thing as unconditional love in sports. The energetic optimism on display in Napa on Friday will not last forever in the absence of wins.

But man, I’ve gotta say, this will be fun as long as it lasts.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: ?@Skinny_Post.