While the Las Vegas Raiders make injury decisions on key players, Aidan O’Connell could return at quarterback for Week 16. Meanwhile, former coach Jon Gruden dished on why he brought characters like Antonio Brown to the Raiders.

Gruden said he didn’t interact with Brown much, according to Bussin With The Boys.

“I never got around Antonio enough,” Gruden said of his Raiders days. “You know Antonio showed up on a hot air balloon. He had his feet fried. He had cryotherapy. I had never even heard of cryotherapy and he had an issue with his helmet. (So) he wasn’t happy the NFL wouldn’t let him wear his helmet. We really never got him around the guys very much. So I never really had very much interaction with him at all. Really one of the most frustrating things of my coaching career was not getting him to play for us.

“I was trying to bring back the old Raiders, the ‘75 – ‘80 Raiders.”

Former coach Jon Gruden tried to revive old days

Las Vegas Raiders head coach John Gruden is pictured before the start of a game against the Chicago Bears at Allegiant Stadium.
Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

Other notables in the Raiders mix included Vontaze Burfict and Richie Incognito. Gruden said he rememeber one funny story about Incognito.

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“Remember the COVID where you can’t have meetings with the players in person?” Gruden said. “So we would have Zoom meetings. So you would see all the players on their little camera, you’d be having an offensive line meetings, and you’d see the 15 offensive linemen. You’d have a team meeting and you could see a lot of the faces. I remember Incognito one time took all his clothes off and was walking around in his garage, he just did things that were so off the wall hilarious to keep everybody laughing, God bless that guy.”

Burfict also elicted Gruden memories with the Raiders.

“Then you’ve got Vontaze Burfict (with Brown),” Gruden said. “But the two of those guys they mixed pretty good. They’d kind of laugh with one another. And Richie was kind of like the third part of the party. Those conversations were great.

“You talk about Bussin with The Boys. You should see some of the boys I bussed with. I always felt this, if you have football character on your team. We had Derek Carr, we had some really good veteran players. Good football character, lets bring in some characters. So we bring in Burfict, you know Burfict really is a great guy and he’s a smart guy, he just knocks the (expletive) out of you and what’s wrong with that.”

Gruden resigned as Raiders head coach in Oct. of 2021, following reports that emails he wrote over a 10-year period included racist, misogynistic and anti-gay language. He said he resigned for the team, according to espn.com.

“I love the Raiders and do not want to be a distraction,” Gruden said in a statement Monday night. “Thank you to all the players, coaches, staff, and fans of Raider Nation. I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt anyone.”