Tampa Bay Bucs fire head coach Jon Gruden

In something of a surprise announcement, the Tampa Bay Bucs fired head coach Jon Gruden on Friday after seven seasons and a Superbowl championship. The dismissal came in the wake of one of the worst late season collapses in NFL history, as the Bucs failed to make the playoffs by losing 4 straight games after starting the season 9-3. Team General Manager Bruce Allen was also fired by the team after five seasons.

While Gruden did post a winning record in Tampa, it was a less than overwhelming 60-57 mark. This season marked the first time in his tenure that the team posted winning seasons in back-to-back years but it also represented the fourth time in the past six years that they finished out of the playoffs. Gruden was reportedly "blindsided" by the move, as he presumably felt he was safe after surviving the early January coaching purge brought on by the end of the regular season. According to team co-chairman Joel Glazer, it was a difficult decision to make so they took their time doing it:

"Any time a season ends, especially the way our season ended, it's a very, very emotional time. And one thing we always like to do is not act on emotion, let things simmer down, think through things carefully and not make any quick, rash decisions"

"After taking a lot of time to look at our franchise, look where it's been, look where it is, look where we want to go, we just felt this was the time for a change."

Despite the firing, Glazer praised Gruden and GM Allen:

"These decisions are never easy. This is the toughest decision you can make for an NFL franchise. ... Jon and Bruce are consummate professionals. They've poured their heart and soul into this franchise. It's really been an honor to work with them. They gave their all."

Glazer also suggested that the fact that Gruden and Allen had signed contract extensions at the end of last season didn’t factor into their decision one way or the other.

"At the end of every season we sit back and look at everything. We did that last year and went forward with the extensions. But at the end of the day, every year we feel we owe it to this football team and this community to do a good honest assessment of our franchise. If at any point, we feel that change is in our best interest, we feel we have to make that change. That's where we got to in this situation. You can't let decisions you made a year ago affect a decision today."

On the record, Gruden refused to speculate about possible successors:

"In our mind, there's a plan of where we want to go. We've thought it through very carefully. It will become apparent as we move along."

Off the records, reports are suggesting that the decision on Gruden and Allen’s successors is close to being made if it hasn’t been done already, and that an announcement should be forthcoming in a matter of days.