When news broke of Jon Gruden’s racist email attack on NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith, the response was swift from everyone but the Raiders and the NFL.
Sure, they condemned his demeaning comments about Smith’s lips, a tactic long employed by racists to denigrate Black people.
Yet they took no disciplinary action, something I addressed on Monday morning.
But later in the day, The New York Times dropped another bombshell on us all.
More emails by Gruden were discovered and they were just as bad as the one released last week.
A few hours later, Gruden resigned as head coach of the Raiders.
“I have resigned as Head Coach of the Las Vegas Raiders,” said Gruden in the Raiders’ Tweet. “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.”
Seven Years
The hypocrisy of his final sentence speaks volumes of his mentality for he knew what he was doing and saying when he sat down at his computer to type his emails.
Emails he fired off over a seven-year period between 2011 and 2018.
Gruden was caught not just attacking DeMaurice Smith, but also showing us who he is as a person.
He blasted the hiring of women as referees, used derogatory words against commissioner Roger Goddell, spoke about against homosexuals in the NFL and wanted Eric Reid fired for kneeling.
To top it all off, he criticized the NFL for trying to reduce concussions.
That’s a vicious and cowardly stance against an epidemic that caused men like Junior Seau, Dave Duerson and Andre Waters to commit suicide after suffering through the debilitating brain disease.
Gruden, who was an ESPN analyst during this period, offended everyone he could, turned his back on the very players he coached and only seemingly stopped once the Raiders gave him a 10-year, $100 million deal to coach the team.
The old saying is that people will reveal their true selves if you let them.
Now we see who Jon Gruden really is inside, and he’s as ugly as the Chucky character he’s compared to.
But Gruden’s resignation is not the climax or finale of this situation. Rather it’s a single ledge on the mountain of privilege that many in power are sitting on top of in great fear.
We all know that Gruden is not alone in his thoughts, ignorance, hubris and beliefs.
He is just the first to get caught.
Gruden sent his emails to Bruce Allen, the former president of the Washington Football Team. But the Times said others were addressed including Ed Droste, the co-founder of Hooters; Jim McVay, an executive who has run the Outback Bowl, and Nick Reader, the founder of PDQ Restaurants, a Tampa-based fried chicken franchise.
Their involvement with, or silence in response to, Gruden’s outbursts means there are other big dominos that could fall.
The Fall From the Mountaintop
Gruden’s second go-round with the Raiders in 2018 began with great fanfare and criticism.
The team rolled out the red carpet and opened their bank vault to welcome Gruden back to Oakland. But others questioned why the team was giving so much to someone who hadn’t coached in ten years.
Three seasons later, his true persona has been exposed and his football career has imploded.
What started as an investigation into the toxic culture plaguing the Washington Football Team could become a digital enema that exposes the good old boy power network in football and corporate America.
Yet this shouldn’t be a surprise.
It was only four years ago when former Houston Texans owner, Bob McNair, was caught at an owners meeting saying “we can’t have inmates running the prison.”
He apologized and then swiftly backtracked on his apology.
That’s the type of attitude and mentality many in this clique have, especially behind closed doors.
Three years before that, former Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling got caught spewing racist venom on a phone call with his ex-girlfriend.
Sterling was forced to sell the team and was ultimately banned for life from the NBA.
These are the types of individuals Gruden’s situation could potentially expose.
Men of great wealth and power who run teams.
Owners who blatantly colluded to blackball Colin Kaepernick out of the league and quietly disparage various groups and individuals while openly supporting people like the former president.
Men whose egos, celebrity and wealth fuel and support their vulgarity, ignorance and entitlement.
Gruden will be exiled from the NFL; but as we are well aware, that could change after a short period of time.
It’s not a strecth to think that some program in the South will ignore his behavior, recall him from football purgatory and embrace him with the arms of those who believe that cancel culture was the true culprit for his misfortune.
Whether it’s arrogance, hubris, entitlement or ignorance, Jon Gruden forged his way through the barricades of common sense and decency to end his football career; at least for the time being.
Now let’s see who follows him into exile.
