Courtesy Boston Globe

(May 22, 2009) He won't offer his first word of analysis until a Cardinals-Steelers exhibition game Aug. 13, but already the inclination is to agree that ESPN's choice of Jon Gruden as a replacement for Tony Kornheiser on "Monday Night Football" telecasts is a shrewd one - for this year, anyway.

Gruden's appeal to ESPN is as obvious as his trademark scowl. The charismatic 45-year-old's boyish yet gruff persona made him one of the league's most recognizable head coaches during his 11 seasons with the Oakland Raiders (1998-2001) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2002-08). With 100 career victories, five division championships, and one Super Bowl title on his NFL coaching résumé, he has the credibility that was lacking in the network's other confirmed candidate for the position, former Detroit Lions general manager Matt Millen, who is a capable analyst but a historically hapless executive. And Gruden is no television novice, having made well-received contributions to the NFL Network's scouting combine and draft coverage earlier this year. NFL Network executives were reportedly surprised and disappointed to see him jump to ESPN.

"Jon is one of the best football minds in the game, he has a natural ability to communicate that knowledge, and he brings great enthusiasm - everything you want in an analyst," ESPN vice president Norby Williamson said during a conference call Monday.

For his part, Gruden offered the predictable plaudits about working with play-by-play voice Mike Tirico and analyst Ron Jaworski in the booth.

"To join Mike and Jaws in the booth and to work alongside this top-notch team is going to be a thrill," Gruden said.

But there could be an eventual downside for ESPN. Gruden, who was fired last season after the Buccaneers lost their final four games to miss the playoffs, sounded like a man taking a one-year sabbatical rather than someone making a career change. Once, when asked about the length of his contract, he said, "I'm a short-term, goal-oriented person." At another point he said, "I dearly miss coaching."

If he returns to the sideline after just one season in the booth, ESPN would be in the awkward position of making a major alteration to the broadcast team for the third time since "Monday Night Football" moved to the network in 2006.

This particular alteration should work, however, even if it is fair to wonder whether Gruden can be a willing critic of those who were his peers just last year and probably will be again. He certainly ought to be much more adaptable to the format than the miscast Kornheiser, the longtime Washington Post columnist who hosts ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" program with Michael Wilbon.

Kornheiser, who cited a fear of flying as his main reason for leaving "Monday Night Football" after three years - ESPN confirmed he had requested a limited travel schedule but emphasized it was his decision to leave - was wallowing in the no-win role as the football outsider in the booth, the Everyman, usually at the expense of his most appealing trait, his caustic wit. Too often he would fall into monologues about the state of his fantasy football team, and his fawning over the likes of Brett Favre was unbecoming of such an accomplished cynic.

Kornheiser praised the hiring of Gruden on Monday ("He is the two things you most want - smart and funny - and has the two things I don't - good hair and a tan") and he was his usual wisecracking self during the opening segment of "PTI" on Tuesday, responding with pitch-perfect mock incredulity to Wilbon's volley about being replaced on "MNF": "What? They what? Now I know how Tony Dungy felt in Tampa." Dungy was fired by the Buccaneers to make room for Gruden.

But Kornheiser was considerably more candid during a nine-minute video interview on the Washington Post's website posted Wednesday.

"I did it for three years, which is three years more than I thought I would do it. Which is three more years than any sportswriter has ever done it," Kornheiser said. "I would like to think that it made the move safe for sportswriters, but obviously it didn't. Because what ESPN did was go to the other extreme. A sportswriter looks at the game from the outside in. A coach looks at the game from the inside out. So now you add Jon Gruden to Ron Jaworski, and you have a circumstance ripe for in-depth analysis. Which is something not only that I couldn't do, but it wasn't my charge to do. It's not why they hired me."

Kornheiser acknowledged he never quite found the right niche or tone in the booth.

"I'm grateful for the opportunity to have done it - I don't want to say I enjoyed it exclusively or thoroughly - because there were times when I didn't enjoy it," he said. "I don't like the flying, obviously, some of the travel was hard. But doing the games was hard. You're the third guy in - I've said this a million times, I'm used to having the microphone in my hand - I had to share, and I don't share all that well. And I was always conscious and cognizant that the game was going on behind me, and I had to talk about the game, or at least I felt like I had to talk about the game . . . Football seems to be the only game where people who watch demand expertise, and demand depth of analysis."

Kornheiser said he is grateful he still has "the program I love the most."

"Of all the things I've done in my life, I've never had as much fun as I've had doing the 'PTI' program," he said.

It's easy to imagine Gruden offering similar sentiments about his true passion after this season. Chances are he won't be talking about broadcasting.