Jon Gruden resigns as Las Vegas Raiders head coach after offensive emails leak

On Oct. 8, 2021, it was reported that in 2011, Las Vegas Raiders Head Coach Jon Gruden had sent an email regarding a professional football labor dispute that used a racial trope to describe DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA). In the following days, it was revealed that Gruden had sent additional emails over the years containing other racially insensitive remarks, homophobic slurs, mysoginistic terms, lewd pictures, and other crude language. The public backlash was swift and severe, with many calling for the NFL to punish or remove Gruden for these messages.

Key Players

Jon Gruden is a longtime NFL coach and football analyst. He has spent two stints as a head coach, spanning a total of 15 seasons. The 2021 season was the fourth since his return as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. He also spent nine years in between coaching jobs as a football pundit and color commentator for ESPN. He was three full seasons into a ten-year, $100 million contract with the Raiders. 

Roger Goodell is the fifth commissioner in NFL history and has held that position since 2006. As commissioner, he is responsible for setting and upholding the league’s rules and standards as well as handing down discipline for any infractions. 

DeMaurice Smith has been the executive director of the NFLPA since 2009. He is primarily responsible for representing NFL players’ interests during collective bargaining negotiations as well as grievance proceedings. 

Bruce Allen is the former president of the Washington Football Team, one of the NFL’s 32 franchises. The emails in question were sent by Gruden to Allen’s official team account over the course of Allen’s tenure (2009 to 2019). 

Further Details

According to the blog Larry Brown Sports, Gruden and Allen became close when they both worked for the (then Oakland) Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the bulk of the 2000s. The 2011 emails that were leaked to the public pertained to an ongoing legal investigation into the workplace culture of the Washington Football Team organization, during Allen’s time as president. 

The investigation resulted from numerous claims of sexual harassment and other workplace misconduct carried out by high-level Washington front-office employees. According to The Wall Street Journal, which initially reported on the incident, the offensive emails from Gruden were part of 650,000 emails examined by the NFL.

Gruden’s first email to Allen sparked outrage across the NFL, as well as the general public. As reported by the Journal, Gruden referred to Smith, who is Black, by writing, “Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin tires.” 

On Oct. 8, 2021, Gruden told The Athletic he “went too far” with the comment, but he “never had a blade of racism in [him].” Two days later, during a postgame press conference, Gruden addressed the scandal. “All I can say is I’m not a racist,” he said. “I apologize again to De Smith. But I feel good about who I am and what I’ve done my entire life. I apologize again for the insensitive remarks. I had no racial intentions with those remarks at all.”

On Oct. 10, 2021, ESPN reported a quote from Rod Graves, the executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, that said Gruden’s insult was “indicative of the racism that exists on many levels of professional sports” and called for the league to pursue “a remedy commensurate with these painful words.” ESPN also reported that some people within the Raiders organization believed Gruden should be held accountable, despite the email having been sent ten years earlier.

The larger scope of Gruden’s emails was revealed shortly thereafter. On Oct. 11, 2021, The New York Times reported that from 2010 to 2018, Gruden had “casually and frequently” used misogynistic and homophobic language in his emails with Allen. This included a profane tirade against Goodell, which referred to him as a homophobic slur, as well as a “clueless anti football p****.” 

Gruden also sent emails to Allen regarding the St. Louis (now Los Angeles) Rams’ drafting of former defensive end Michael Sam, the first NFL draft prospect to  come out publicly as gay. CBS Sports reported Gruden criticized Goodell, asserting that the league forced the Rams into drafting “queers.” 

Gruden also stated he hoped former player Eric Reid would be fired for kneeling during the national anthem, according to The Guardian. Similarly, Deadline reported Gruden advocated for former quarterback Colin Kaepernick to be released by the San Francisco 49ers, writing, “They suspend people for taking amino acids, they should cut this fuck [for kneeling].”

Further, some of Gruden’s correspondence with Allen also included photos of topless Washington Football Team cheerleaders, according to CBS Sports. 

Outcome 

Gruden resigns as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, hints at more details to come

On the evening of Oct. 11, 2021, Gruden resigned as head coach of the Raiders. In a written statement, Gruden said “I have resigned as Head Coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. 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.” He was subsequently replaced on an interim basis by Rich Bisaccia, who previously served as the Raiders’ special teams coordinator. 

On Oct. 21, 2021, NBC Sports reported Gruden later gave a vague response in an interview with HBO, saying “the truth will come out” about his record and the investigation. 

NFL declines to release other details of the Washington investigation, receives backlash

In the wake of successive email leaks, many felt the rest of the investigation should be made public, but Goodell and other league officials declined to do so. The NFL received significant criticism for this decision, notably from NBC Sports writer Mike Florio, who wrote in a brief Oct. 19 opinion piece that “there’s no legitimate reason” not to release, at a minimum, the rest of Allen’s emails to the public. 

On Oct. 26, 2021, ESPN reported that Goodell’s reasoning for confidentiality was to protect the anonymity of whistleblowers. “We’re very conscious of making sure we’re protecting those who came forward,” Goodell said. 

Gruden sues the NFL and Goodell

On Nov. 11, 2021, Gruden filed a lawsuit against the NFL and Goodell in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Clark County, Nevada, according to ESPN. 

Gruden’s attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner, said “The complaint alleges that the defendants selectively leaked Gruden’s private correspondence to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times in order to harm Gruden’s reputation and force him out of his job,” adding there was no explanation as to why “Gruden’s emails were the only ones made public out of the 650,000 emails collected in the NFL’s investigation of the Washington Football Team or for why the emails were held for months before being released in the middle of the Raiders’ season.”

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told CNN, “The allegations are entirely meritless and the NFL will vigorously defend against these claims.” 

As of Nov. 15, 2021, there were no further developments in this case.