Raiders Coach Buys Himself a 2020 GT500
No football fan in America should be surprised by the color combo he went with.
If you grew up in the 1990s, you know that a bulky Raiders Starter jacket was the ultimate in cool. Whether or not you were a football fan, there was just something about that instantly recognizable black and silver color combo, combined with bold “RAIDERS” lettering and a smirking football player/pirate wearing an eyepatch.
There’s just something inherently classy about the combination of silver and black. Combined with a tough guy image, it’s easily one of the most iconic team logos in professional sports.
Rap group NWA was famous for wearing Raiders merch like it was a uniform. It only added to the team’s bad boy mystique throughout the ’90s. Of course, some tough teams and a few playoff appearances certainly helped that reputation.
In fact, we’d even say that the popularity of Raiders merch shaped car colors, too. Towards the late 1990s, silver became a dominant car color, eventually becoming the most popular color for a few years.
High Performance On and Off the Field
When the now Las Vegas-based Raiders coach Jon Gruden decided to buy himself a fast car, there was only one sensible choice, and only one sensible color combo. He called on Las Vegas-based Shelby American to build him a one-of-a-kind GT500 Mustang — naturally, in silver metallic with black racing stripes.
Besides tons of horsepower, Gruden’s GT500 features a few other Raiders-inspired touches. The wing features huge “RAIDERS” lettering across it, and the personalized license plate reads “JTWYN.” That’s a reference to flamboyant former owner Al Davis‘ catch phrase “just win, baby.”
With 760 supercharged horsepower on tap, Gruden won’t have to worry much about winning races. As far as winning on the field, well, that’s still up in the air. However, our resident football expert tells us that the raiders are looking much improved this year. Still, we might be a year or two away from a celebratory Super Bowl burnout.
According to NBC 3 News Las Vegas, the car represents a partnership between the coach and a local chain of Ford dealers. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to us!
Photos: NBC 3 News Las Vegas
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