By all indications, Oakland Raiders coach Jon Gruden has banned two words from his vocabulary.
"Las" and "Vegas."
The reasons are pretty obvious. Gruden wants his players focused on the now, and many of them won't be on the roster anyway when the franchise relocates in two years. Still, Gruden sidesteps any references to the team's future home with Barry Sanders-type elusiveness.
Michael Gehlken, who covers the team for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has kept a running count of how many times Gruden has mentioned that city in a formal setting. The grand total? Once. That came in his introductory news conference Jan.