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Tuesday, February 18
 
Gruden to hand keys to winning bidder

By Darren Rovell
ESPN.com

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers partly credit their Super Bowl victory to the championship drive of their coach, Jon Gruden. Well, now you can buy it.

A Tampa-based car dealership, which donated a 2002 Mercedes S500 to Gruden this past season, is auctioning off the car on online auction site eBay. Gruden will hand the keys to the winning bidder, take pictures and even autograph the car, said Darren Haygood, director of internet sales for Mercedes Benz of Tampa.

The four-door white car is fully loaded and has less than 5,000 miles on it. The minimum bid of $50,000 has been made, but the reserve price, which Haygood would not quote, has not been reached. A bidder has the option of buying the car for $83,900 if he or she does not want to endure the bidding process. The auction will close around noon ET on Feb. 20.

Haygood says the car dealership has been giving complimentary cars to Tampa Bay head coaches since Sam Wyche became the head coach in 1992.

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at Darren.rovell@espn3.com.




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