Keith Rowen reportedly joins personnel staff
By Eric Strauss, S&B Report Staff Columnist
David White of the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting the Raiders have added former assistant coach Keith Rowen to the front office’s personnel department.
White cites league sources in reporting on the return of the team’s offensive line coach in 1997 and 1998. The Raiders have not announced a move, nor is Rowen listed on Raiders.com.
Rowen, the Atlanta Falcons’ tight ends coach last season, made headlines a couple of years ago when, as the Arizona Cardinals’ offensive coordinator, he was scapegoated for the come-from-ahead loss to the Chicago Bears that led to Dennis Green’s infamous “they are who we thought they were!” rant. His demotion after the loss led to a grievance against the team, which he eventually withdrew.
Rowen, who has some 30-plus years as an assistant coach, first joined the Raiders as assistant head coach/offensive line coach under Joe Bugel — himself an offensive line guru — in 1997. The next year, Jon Gruden’s first as head coach, Rowen was stripped of the assistant head coach title, but remained offensive line coach.
(Some reports have suggested Rowen was retained only because he was under contract; the next season, he was gone and offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Bill Callahan, Gruden’s right-hand man, was named offensive coordinator/offensive line coach.)
The Raiders added Rich Snead and George Streeter to their personnel department last year, ostensibly to add some new blood to a scouting staff that includes five men with 20-plus seasons of experience and had lost head man Mike Lombardi, but Streeter was dismissed during the offseason.
White reports it would be the first scouting job of Rowen’s career, but on his blog — as opposed to the main news article — makes pains to point out he could be a successor to Tom Cable, whose contract is up at the end of the 2008 season, and who rumors have tied to former boss Jim Mora Jr., the coach-in-waiting with the Seattle Seahawks.
Rowen has plenty of Bay Area ties: As the son of a former San Francisco State coach, he played high school ball in San Francisco, and he went on to play and coach at Stanford University.
