Super Bowl: Gruden the former Raider plots Tampa Bay's triumph

As sporting spectacles go Super Bowl XXXVII, which gets underway here tomorrow evening after a week of relentless hyperbole, makes for compelling viewing on a number of levels.

On the one hand, it provides classic duel between the game's most potent offence and its most destructive defence. The Oakland Raiders have headed down the California coastline bringing with them the most prolific passing attack since Miami's Dan Marino was in his prime in the 1980s. Opposing them, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with the meanest defence in the NFL, a hard-hitting bunch who gave up the fewest yards and points of any team this season.

Then there is the age factor. Oakland's core group of middle-aged veterans have captured the imagination during the build-up to tomorrow's game, and it is not hard to see why. The receiver Jerry Rice first graced this stage 14 years ago, when he helped the San Francisco 49ers defeat the Cincinnati Bengals. Now 40, Rice is an inspiration for ageing athletes whatever their chosen sport.

Rice may literally be the game's elder statesman, but joining him in active service are a collection of colleagues who logically should have settled for a life less violent some years ago. Rice's receiving partner, Tim Brown, is 36, their quarterback Rich Gannon, 37, the formidable linebacker Bill Romanowski still rages at 36, while Rod Woodson, one of the best safeties of all time, is fast approaching 38.

Those two ingredients alone would make this year's championship game required viewing, but there is a third element which provides a dimension of soap opera proportions.

This time last year, Jon Gruden was head coach of the Raiders, but his relationship with the idiosyncratic team owner Al Davis was growing increasingly strained. Gruden still had a year on his contract, but had effectively become a lame duck within a franchise where Davis rules with the authority of a medieval despot.

Meanwhile, the Buccaneers were looking for a new coach, and set their sights on the young, dynamic and restless Gruden. Sensing Tampa's desperation, Davis drove a hard bargain, agreeing to his coach's early release in exchange for $8m (£5.5m) and four draft choices. The Buccaneers must surely believe he is worth every penny.

Both teams profited from the trade, but the net result is that tonight Gruden, now head coach in Tampa, faces the team he helped groom for greatness over the course of the previous four seasons. For the 39-year-old, it means a chance for vengeance. Davis has virtually commanded his players that this is the one game they simply must not lose.

The most amusing sight of Super Bowl week has been Gruden attempting to play down the deeply personal nature of tomorrow's engagement. "This is the Super Bowl, and it's a dream of mine come true,'' he said at one of the many media cross-examinations held this week. "I'm going to let the players enjoy this. They are the ones who are going to decide the game. Hopefully my situation is a sidebar, page 19, lower right column.''

"Hold the back page'' might be more appropriate. Revenge is a word bandied freely here this week, but the reality is that the Gruden factor is simply a delicious coincidence which has made selling this year's game a marketing man's dream. Certainly there is no animosity between the two coaches. Gruden and his replacement, Bill Callahan, are friends of longstanding, with genuine mutual admiration.

Having never been a head coach at any level, Callahan was a surprise appointment, but Davis's gamble has proved to be a shrewd one. "He's a grinder, that's the best compliment I can give him,'' said Gruden of his rival. "There's not a lot of time he spends on the golf course, and I don't think he does the restaurant circuit. He just knows everything about you and your team.''

Praise indeed, but nothing compared to the tribute Callahan offers to his former boss. "You could not have a finer mentor than Jon Gruden,'' he said. "My exposure with Jon was invaluable. I wouldn't be sitting here today if I had not had those experiences.''

Personalities aside this year's Super Bowl is one of great contrasts. The Raiders are all offence, the Buccaneers defensively are daunting. Oakland are playing in their sixth championship, and have won more games than any other team over the last 30 years. Founded in 1976, Tampa Bay have endured a long tradition of futility, but their first Super Bowl is the culmination of a six-year rehabilitation begun under former coach Tony Dungy, completed with aplomb by Gruden.

Now, the man who has coached both teams holds all the cards. "I don't live life in a rear-view mirror,'' said Gruden. "I am very proud and respectful of where I have come from. I learned a great deal there and met some profound people including an owner who taught me a lot. I have no bitterness.''

Gruden knows his enemy, and in the most finely balanced Super Bowl in decades that might be crucial in helping to tilt the balance in Tampa's favour.