Jon Gruden Faked COVID-19 Diagnosis To Scare Raiders’ Players

In what is perhaps the most Jon Gruden thing that Gruden has ever done, it has been reported that while the team was on a Zoom call  the coach got the Raiders’ special teams’ coach to tell the players that he was in the hospital with a serious illness caused by COVID-19. This ended up not being true, and Gruden was apparently doing it to put a scare into his players and teach them that the virus can affect anyone and that they are not immune.

One more on the #Raiders from Inside Training Camp on @nflnetwork: Jon Gruden’s attempt to “crush” COVID-19 included assistant Rich Bisaccia tricking the players into thinking Gruden had coronavirus. But it wasn’t a mean-spirited prank. There was a serious message behind it. pic.twitter.com/I832Zy5g2a

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) August 5, 2020