FLINT, MICH. - Flint Firebirds coach John Gruden packed up his office, put his belongings in his car and drove off into the night without a job.
Soon after Gruden woke up, he was back to work.
“I felt like Billy Martin,” he deadpanned. “Fired one day, and hired the next.”
One difference, though, is that the former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner didn’t have a son playing for his franchise when he hired Martin five times between 1975 and 1987, fired him four times and let him resign once.
Gruden and his Ontario Hockey League team were back on the ice Wednesday, trying to regain a sense of normalcy.