Jon Gruden, one of the NFL’s most recognizable personalities, resigned as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders Monday night after The New York Times revealed emails he had written that include homophobic and misogynistic comments.
Last week, a separate report from The Wall Street Journal detailed a 2011 Gruden email that contained a racist trope about Black men.
“I have resigned as Head Coach of the Las Vegas Raiders,” Gruden said in a statement released by the team’s Twitter account. “I love the Raiders and do not want to be a distraction. Thank you to all the players, coaches, staff, and fans of Raider Nation. I’m sorry, I never meant to hurt anyone.”
Gruden’s insensitive remarks were uncovered during an investigation into the workplace culture of the Washington Football Team. Gruden was never associated with the organization, but he exchanged emails with a number of employees there, including former team president Bruce Allen. The New York Times reports on the specifics (we’ve inserted asterisks into the most offensive words, but Gruden didn’t):
In the emails, Gruden called the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, a “f*gg*t” and a “clueless anti football p*ssy” and said that Goodell should not have pressured Jeff Fisher, then the coach of the Rams, to draft “qu**rs,” a reference to Michael Sam, a gay player chosen by the team in 2014.
The NFL’s first openly gay player, Carl Nassib, plays on the Raiders.
More from the Times report:
In numerous emails during a seven-year period ending in early 2018, Gruden criticized Goodell and the league for trying to reduce concussions and said that Eric Reid, a player who had demonstrated during the playing of the national anthem, should be fired. In several instances, Gruden used a homophobic slur to refer to Goodell and offensive language to describe some N.F.L. owners, coaches and journalists who cover the league.
In 2011, Gruden sent an email criticizing DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the NFL Players Association. Gruden wrote of Smith, who is black, “Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin tires.”
In other emails, Gruden used inflammatory language about Caitlyn Jenner, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and several NFL owners.
Email threads Gruden participated in also contained sexist memes and pornographic content.
Gruden was in his fourth year as the Raiders head coach, having signed a ten year, $100 million deal in 2018. This was his second stint with the team. He had won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002 and served as a color commentator for ESPN’s NFL coverage.
Gruden and Allen were former colleagues, having worked together in both Tampa Bay and Oakland (the Raiders relocated to Las Vegas in 2020).
The Times adds:
Taken together, the emails provide an unvarnished look into the clubby culture of one N.F.L. circle of peers, where white male decision makers felt comfortable sharing pornographic images, deriding the league policies, and jocularly sharing homophobic language.
Their banter flies in the face of the league’s public denouncements of racism and sexism and its promises to be more inclusive amid criticism for not listening to the concerns of Black players, who make up about 70 percent of rosters. The N.F.L. has in the past struggled to discipline personnel who have committed acts of domestic violence and been condemned for failing to adequately address harassment of women, including N.F.L. cheerleaders.