It’s suddenly getting a lot worse for Raiders coach Jon Gruden.
The selective leaks of emails sent by Gruden to former Washington executive Bruce Allen has expanded to include emails leaked to the New York Times on Monday.
Per the report, Gruden in the emails called Commissioner Roger Goodell a “f----t” and a “clueless antifootball pussy.” Gruden also said that Goodell should not have pressured former Rams coach Jeff Fisher to draft “queers,” in reference to Michael Sam, a seventh-round pick of the team in 2014.
Meanwhile, an openly gay player, Carl Nassib, currently plays for Gruden.
Gruden also reportedly used “offensive language to describe some owners, coaches and journalists who cover the league.”
As explained in the article, “Allen and Gruden appeared to have few boundaries in expressing homophobic and transphobic language.” They mocked Buccaneers owner Bryan Glazer. They mocked Caitlyn Jenner. They criticized efforts to change the name of the Washington franchise. Gruden commented, “Nice job roger” in response to a sexist meme of a female referee.
As of last night, some in the league office believed Gruden would not be suspended for comments made at a time when he was not employed by any NFL team. It’s unclear whether those persons were aware of these additional emails. (I also have another theory on this, which I’ll explain in a later post.)
On Monday night, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the league sent more emails on Monday to the Raiders, and that the league is basically waiting for the Raiders to decide how to handle the situation. It ultimately could be that, while the league may not be able to suspend Gruden under the Personal Conduct Policy, the league will try to nudge the Raiders to fire him.
Gruden, who has repeatedly insisted that he has no racist bone, may now claim that he has no homophobic bone, no transphobic bone, and no sexist bone, either. At a certain point, the no-bone approach isn’t going to fly.
Based on the emails that surfaced on Monday night, that time may be now. If Gruden doesn’t choose to walk away in the aftermath of these disclosures, Davis very well could choose to terminate Gruden’s employment, sooner than later. It feels like the NFL is trying to get Davis to handle the situation, because the league fears that, legally, there’s nothing it can really do.