Las Vegas Raiders vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have never before played a game in Las Vegas, of course. But they have played the Raiders before – once on the biggest football stage possible – and they are certainly quite familiar with the current Las Vegas head coach.
Jon Gruden is head into the third season of his second stint as the Raiders' head coach, a pair of postings separated by seven seasons as the Buccaneers head coach and another nine as a Monday Night Football color analyst. In February of 2002, Tampa Bay sent four draft picks and a large sum of cash to the then-Oakland Raiders to pry away Gruden, who had been at Oakland's helm for four years. That very season, Gruden led the Buccaneers to a win in Super Bowl XXXVII over…the Oakland Raiders.
That title game was played in San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium, now known as SDCCU Stadium, and that adds another potential twist to this year's Bucs-Raiders contest. If construction is delayed too much on the new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the Bucs might not be going to Sin City for the first time after all. The Raiders are exploring alternate locations for their 2020 home games just in case, and one of the possibilities is SDCCU Stadium. The Buccaneers playing against Jon Gruden's team at the very site of their Super Bowl win over the Raiders? That would be weird, to say the least.