It's summer, Gruden is in Tampa, and apparently that means it's time to learn a new skill. The former NFL head coach — who has become one of Barstool's most entertaining personalities since joining the company — stepped behind the bar at a Tampa restaurant he frequents and got a crash course in bartending. Dark liquor, a jigger, fresh citrus, dark cherries, a muddler, and a cocktail shaker. The man came prepared.
Gruden in a white dress shirt, clip-on mic and all, muddling ingredients and finishing a tall orange cocktail on camera.
The drink he built? He called it The Chucky — a nod to the nickname that's followed him around since his Raiders days, when the intensity on the sideline earned him the comparison to a certain red-haired horror movie villain. It fits. You don't muddle a cocktail without conviction.
What's funny is that even in a cocktail segment, the football doesn't fully leave. The guy approaches a cutting board and a mixing tin with the same locked-in energy he'd bring to a two-minute drill. Watching him sip the finished drink in a Tampa bar with an SP♥10 sign behind him is genuinely one of the more unexpectedly entertaining pieces of Gruden content in a while — and this guy has been putting out a lot of content.
Gruden sampling the finished orange cocktail at the bar while a bartender finishes the pour beside him.
According to Gruden himself, he plans to be enjoying adult beverages this weekend — and he's inviting everyone to join him by mixing a Chucky of their own. The recipe involves dark liquor, cherries, citrus, and some serious muddling. Whether it actually tastes good is secondary. The man named a cocktail after himself on a Friday afternoon in Tampa. That's the kind of energy you want heading into a weekend.