Let the Chucky speculation begin.
After Vinny Cerrato's resignation today (woohoo!), more news emerged that Bruce Allen (hey, that last name sounds familiar!) was named as Vinny's replacement.
Allen is the son of George Allen, the legendary Skins coach. Football runs in the family blood, as he was the GM of the Tampa Bay Bucs from 2004-08 and previously was an executive with the Raiders -- back when they were decent!
The Bucs fired Allen at the end of last season, despite having given him a contract extension the previous off-season. They were apparently happy with his work, 'til a late-season collapse took them out of the playoffs.
When they dumped him, they also dumped Jon Gruden. Which leads, obviously, to the next question: is this a package deal?
Gruden's name has floated around all year, as one of the three or four big-name coaches out there, waiting for a job. Some of the speculation went away when he signed a contract extension with ESPN to continue to do Monday Night Football work, but those kinds of deals usually have out clauses for inside football jobs.
And, conveniently, which team is hosting Monday Night Football this week? Yep. Chucky's coming to town to visit his old friend's new team.
It's all speculation now, of course, but you've gotta believe that Chucky's at least going to take a phone call or two from Allen.
Meanwhile, Jim Zorn continues to pace up and down the sideline, holding an empty clipboard while listening to an unplugged headset, wondering where it all went wrong.
