Las Vegas Raiders: The Rise and Fall of former head coach Jon Gruden
By Alex Perl
Las Vegas Raiders: The Rise and Fall of former head coach Jon Gruden
The Downfall
After a botched Week 4 game to the Los Angeles Chargers, things were still looking up for Gruden and the Raiders, as 3-1 is not a bad thing. Then, like a ton of bricks, troubling news had begun to brew surrounding Gruden, as an email from 10 years ago resurfaced and deemed as racist had been discovered sent by Gruden, which described African-American NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith using a racial trope.
Gruden immediately responded by stating his choice of words were not racist and backed up his own claims stating he never would say anything of this nature that would offend.
Week 5 went on for the Raiders, and once again the Raiders faltered. Losing at home to the Chicago Bears, but despite the loss, it was not the biggest thing on Raider fans’ minds. The email and choice of words had the world debating just what did Gruden mean in that email, and like wildfire, by Monday the NFL had already found more ‘degrading’ emails from Gruden sent to members of the Washington Football team’s personnel.
After an investigation into the Washington football team over a culture that owner Daniel Snyder had let rear its ugly head and operate in ways considered offensive and wrong, this is what led to what was a treasure trove of emails from Gruden between 2011-2018 while working at ESPN that had him use horrific comments describing the LBGTQ community, misogynistic comments against female referees, and his displeasure for players kneeling during the national anthem.