Racist Raider

Jon Gruden said, “I never had a blade of racism in me.” No, Jon Gruden, you have an entire pasture of racism in you and you’re going to need some woke goats unleashed on it to mow it down.

Jon Gruden, a Super Bowl-winning head coach in the National Football League is a racist, homophobic, sexist, intolerant bigot.

An investigation by The Wall Street Journal (no link because I don’t subscribe) and The New York Times (I do subscribe) detail that emails from Jon Gruden to friends in the league from 2011 to 2018 don’t just reveal Gruden is a vile bigot, but that a hateful culture remains in the NFL.

The NFL has tried to be a bit more progressive over the past few decades. There is now a rule that at least one black candidate has to be interviewed for each open head coach position. The league has tried to be more inclusive over the concerns of black players. The league has denounced sexism and racism. By the way, what team does Colin Kaepernick play for now? It’s not the Raiders.

Gruden’s emails were uncovered during a separate investigation of sexism, bullying, harassment, and a hostile work environment at the Washington Football Team, formerly the “Redskins,” which is also racist. Gruden’s emails were to Bruce Allen, who was the general manager at the time.

Interesting tidbit: Bruce Allen is the son of George Allen who was the coach of the Washington Football Team, and the brother of George Allen, a former governor and United States senator in Virginia who used to keep a noose in his office as a memento, which is also racist.

Another interesting tidbit: The Washington Football Team was the last NFL team to integrate.

There were several other coaches and administration officials from NFL teams in these emails. It was like a CC of bigotry. Some of those people are Ed Droste, the co-founder of Hooters; Jim McVay, an executive who has run the Outback Bowl, and Nick Reader, the founder of PDQ fried chicken Restaurants. According to the Times, these guys weren’t just receiving Gruden’s emails and reading them. They were also offering their own bigoted comments. These racists were willful participants and were yukking it up. Who would have expected willful participation in misogyny from the Hooters guy?

Jon Gruden coached the Raiders in the late 90s and into the early 2000s. He quit to take the head coach position in Tampa Bay, who had just fired Tony Dungy (who is black) for not advancing in the playoffs (after making the playoffs). Gruden took the Buccaneers to the Super Bowl and won in his first season, with a team built by Dungy. Gruden was fortunate that the opponent in that game were the Raiders, who were still using Gruden’s playbook. Gruden remained with the Bucs for six more years and only made the playoffs twice without ever winning another playoff game. He then became an NFL analyst for ESPN and and acquired lucrative endorsement contracts.

By the way, Tony Dungy went to Indianapolis where he inherited a horrible team like he did in Tampa. But also like he did in Tampa, he built that team into a Super Bowl team. It didn’t hurt that he also inherited Peyton Manning.

Jon Gruden was viewed by the league and fans as a brilliant one-of-a-kind football coach even though he was mediocre at best. Daniel Snyder could have coached that Dungy team to the Super Bowl. Jon Gruden left ESPN in 2018 to return to the Raiders, who had been pursuing him for six years, gave him a ten-year contract worth over $100 million, and partial ownership of the team. It was the richest contract in the league. In return, Gruden gave them a record of 22-31. His best season was 8-8. Gruden might be a fun analyst but he’s a mediocre football coach. He’s also a racist, sexist, homophobe, and in general, an all-around bigot.

What were in these seven years of emails that were so horrible? Surely, they couldn’t have been that bad, right? Well, in one he referred to DeMaurice Smith, the black leader of the NFL Players Association, as “Dumboriss Smith,” and said he “has lips the size of Michelin tires.” OK. Case closed. He’s a bigot. But, Gruden didn’t just specialize in racism. As I said, he’s an all-around bigot.

Gruden unleashed his bigotry casually in misogynistic and homophobic language over several years to denigrate people around the game and to mock some of the league’s most momentous changes, like adding female referees. Yeah, Gruden didn’t like that.

In the emails to Allen, Gruden called the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, a “faggot” and a “clueless anti football pussy” and said Goodell should not have pressured Jeff Fisher, then the coach of the Rams, to draft “queers,” a reference to Michael Sam, a gay player chosen by the team in 2014. If he returns to making commercials for Corona beer, where he’s on a beach answering a help line and telling callers to drink Corona, I wonder if they’ll allow him to use those words. Sure, it’s a Mexican beer, but Gruden’s endorsement will probably help sales with the Proud Boy crowd.

Gruden also criticized Goodell with homophobic language for trying to reduce concussions in the league. Yeah, because everyone knows it’s gay to care about concussions. Just play football. Gruden also used this type of language to go after other coaches, team owners, and journalists.

Gruden, like Donald Trump, wanted players fired for protesting during the national anthem. I wonder if he wrote, “Fire that sonofabitch”? Do you know what’s worse than protesting during the national anthem? Racism.

Gruden said he only used an “expletive” for Goodell because he was upset about team owners’ lockout of the players in 2011. He was also upset over safety measures in the league and that they were scaring parents from letting their sons play football. But, Gruden wasn’t a racist sexist homophobe just during 2011. Also, nobody only goes back to racist tropes while they’re angry. If a person calls you a racist or uses a gay slur, that person is racist and homophobic. He’s not just racist for one minute. Plus, Gruden must have been very comfortable writing down these comments with the people he was sending these racist homophobic sexist emails to, like the Hooters guy and Bruce Allen, the brother of former racist governor/senator George Allen who kept a noose in his office.

Gruden also liked to share photos of naked women with these NFL dudes, including two Washington cheerleaders. Speaking as a man, a lot of us don’t do that. I don’t and no, I’m not gay. If I did share those kind of photos, I think it would really weird my friends out. But then again, I don’t have friends like Jon Gruden, Bruce Allen, and the Hooters guy. I’m having a hard time getting over he was emailing the Hooters guy. Was Gruden emailing black jokes to the Uncle Ben guy and Paula Deen?

The cherry on top of all of this, for now, is that Gruden went after President Obama and Vice-President Biden in 2012. I don’t know what words he used for Obama, but he called Biden a “nervous clueless pussy.” I wonder what he thinks of Biden now.

Gruden claims he doesn’t remember any of these emails he was writing for seven years.

Stay tuned because we haven’t seen or heard all the words Gruden used in these emails but I’m certain more will be revealed. Maybe this is why he resigned last night in the middle of Monday Night Football.

Mark Davis, the owner of the Raiders, was aware of these emails before Sunday’s game…but Davis allowed Gruden to stick around. Then, more were revealed yesterday and Gruden resigned. If he hadn’t resigned yet, would he still be the head coach of the Raiders this morning?

This is the end for Jon Gruden as a coach, analyst, and Mexican beer spokesperson. At least it should be. There is no place in this nation for people who think the way Jon Gruden does….except in the Republican Party.

How much do you wanna bet that Donald Trump issues a statement defending Jon Gruden? And if the Michelin tires lips comment doesn’t prove you’re a racist, the Trump endorsement will.

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