17-Year Veteran NFL Coach Duped by Caitlin Clark Memory in a Big Embarrassment as Gift to Dave Portnoy Backfires

You probably have a good idea of who Jon Gruden is, right? He’s the one who helped Tampa Bay secure their first Super Bowl ring back in ‘03. Jon was literally the youngest coach at that time to win a Super Bowl. I know, right? He was actually pretty good. Do you remember what happened to him in ‘21? He had to resign as the coach of the Raiders because of some emails containing derogatory terms towards NFL owners, executives, and journalists. After staying away from the camera lights for a while, Barstool Sports hired him last November. It’ll be a great popcorn watch to see what the future holds for him in this new space.

Jon Gruden didn’t take much time to bring all the cameras on him, but again, for the wrong reason. Recently, he got Dave Portnoy, owner of Barstool Sports, a high school jersey of Caitlin Clark. Woah, that’s pretty rare to find. Dave Portnoy got super excited and even posted on his IG story about this gift. He wrote, “Yesterday, Jon Gruden surprised me with a high school Caitlin Clark jersey.” And the most hilarious thing happened a few hours later. In the latest post by Barstool Sports, the caption read, “Caitlin Clark had to let Dave Portnoy know Jon Gruden’s gift was fake.”

I mean, wearing a normal dupe t-shirt can be ignored in public. But Oh boy, if you’re caught wearing a dupe jersey, that’s almost a sin for the fans. Dave Portnoy’s excitement was all crushed by Caitlin Clark herself when she saw the story. She texted, ‘But I wore 11. Nobody knows that.‘ And that’s exactly when Jon Gruden made a joke of himself, even if his heart was in the right place. I guess even legends like Gruden can get a little mixed up sometimes, but it’s all part of the fun.

And we all know how Dave is—he loves to joke around. When he found out about the dupe jersey, he told Jon, “You got me a fake jersey. I would’ve embarrassed myself!” Jon, cracking a laugh, responded, “From the horse’s mouth.” In the end, they both laughed it off, and it became a story they’ll smile about in the future. But hey, Jon Gruden still went out of his way to get him a jersey, fake or real. The poor guy at least deserved a “thank you.” because he knew Dave would love it, being such a big Caitlin Clark fan.

Why Jon Gruden gifted Dave Portnoy a Caitlin Clark jersey?

As we said, Dave Portnoy is actually a huge Caitlin Clark fan. He’s always been pretty vocal about it. I mean, why not? She literally won the WNBA Rookie of the Year award and got herself the Nancy Lieberman Award too. Not just that, she was named TIME magazine Athlete of the Year last year. And you know, right? How with rising fame comes criticism and hate. She also got a lot of backlash when she received the Athlete of the Year award. One of the journalists on her X posted, “Look at this. She’s on the knee all but apologizing for being white and getting attention. The self-flagellation. The ‘oh please pay attention to the black players who are REALLY the ones you want to celebrate.’ Condescending. Fake. Transparent. Sad.”

That’s exactly when Dave Portnoy used his social media presence to back her up. He defended her against all the naysayers talking BS about her. He said, “I love Caitlin Clark. I’ve loved her now since like junior year in college when I started watching her play basketball.” He further continued, “I’ve watched basically every single game, all her playoff games in college. Since then, nobody plays like her. Nobody. That’s why she’s so captivating. That’s why the television records are up. It’s all Caitlin Clark. Caitlin Clark put the WNBA on her back. If Caitlin Clark wasn’t in the WNBA, nobody would be talking about women’s basketball. Period. End of story.” That’s a true fan right there.