Earlier this month on October 11th, Jon Gruden resigned as the Las Vegas Raiders’ head coach. Gruden came to the decision after emails leaked where he was repeatedly using insensitive language.
Jon Gruden made a statement following his resignation and 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.”
Adam Schefter on ESPN said it perfectly during Monday Night Football, when he said Gruden had a “clean sweep” of offending all sorts of different people with his emails.
Some of the players were unbothered by the comments. On the other hand, Carl Nassib, the first active NFL player to come out as gay, wanted to take a personal day to process the emails that were sent by Gruden.
The Raiders organization made the right move in my opinion. The language that Gruden used in the emails is offensive and completely unacceptable. As an organization that was previously led by the late great owner Al Davis, who was committed to diversity, if they chose to stick with Gruden it would destroy everything that Al Davis stood for.
Jon Gruden was interviewed recently after being fired. Gruden had this to say, “ ‘People who know me know what I stand for for 58 years. I have a resume of 58 years. The truth will come out.”
No one knows what to make of that statement, or what exactly Gruden is referring to when he says, “the truth will come out,” but it will be interesting to see what the Raiders will do during the offseason to fill their head coaching vacancy.