Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden is no longer part of the team after essentially being cancelled over old emails that were leaked to the New York Times and published tonight:
ESPN – Jon Gruden is out as the Las Vegas Raiders’ head coach, a source confirmed to ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday.
Raiders owner Mark Davis arrived at the team’s facility earlier Monday evening and went to find Gruden, a source told Schefter. The two men met, and Gruden no longer will be the Raiders’ head coach, the source said.
Here’s the details of what Gruden is being accused of saying:
According to The Times, Gruden sent emails to Bruce Allen, then the president of the Washington Football Team, and others during a seven-year period that ended in 2018.
Gruden emailed Allen that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should not have pressured then-Rams coach Jeff Fisher to draft “queers,” referring to former defensive end Michael Sam, a gay player drafted in 2014, according to The Times. The Times also reported that Gruden used an anti-gay slur in several instances while referring to Goodell, and used offensive language to describe some owners, coaches and media members who cover the league.
Gruden also denounced the emergence of women as referees in his emails, according to The Times, and said that safety Eric Reid, who kneeled during the national anthem to protest racial injustice, should be fired. In 2017, after being sent an article link about NFL players seeking the commissioner’s support in their efforts to promote racial equality and criminal justice reform, Gruden replied, in reference to Goodell: “He needs to hide in his concussion protocol tent.”
Gruden was employed by ESPN as the lead analyst for Monday Night Football at the time he sent the emails that are now under review.
I don’t know about you, but I like Gruden even more now! I stand with him on Sam, Reid, and the whole BLM criminal justice reform crap.
But honestly, I really don’t think this is the reason why Gruden is gone. I think it’s just a good excuse for the owner to ‘part ways’.
Gruden signed a 10-year contract worth $100 million and is four years into that contract right now, with not a whole lot to show for it. The Raiders have just suffered two losses in a row, only one of which was to a solid team, and they looked pretty bad in both games. Without getting too far into the weeds, I think owner Mark Davis was probably looking for an excuse to get rid of Gruden and that’s what happened.
Just to put a finer point on it, I think that if the Raiders were playing like my Cowboys, I’m almost certain that Davis would simply try and weather this and move on.
The said thing for Gruden is that this will not only affect his career as a coach, but also his career as football announcer. Nobody will touch him after this, especially ESPN, who he worked for before going to the Raiders.