Back in 2018, the Oakland Raiders, who have since relocated to Las Vegas, signed Jon Gruden to a 10-year contract worth $100 million to become the team’s new head coach. The Raiders signed Gruden in an attempt to reclaim a spot amongst the top teams in the NFL. However, signing Gruden has proven to be a mistake. Gruden resigned Monday night after leaked emails showed the head coach using racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language.
Emails released by the New York Times have put Gruden and the NFL under scrutiny once again. The original email detailed racist remarks directed towards DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the NFL Players Association. Gruden insulted Smith’s intelligence and made a racially charged comment towards Smith’s appearance. This email came to light on Friday, but was not enough for Gruden to step down or the Raiders to take action.
Gruden resigned after another wave of emails was released regarding his use of misogynistic and homophobic language that spanned from 2011 through 2018. Gruden’s comments included criticism of women being able to referee in the NFL, refusing to draft gay players, calling Rodger Goodell numerous homophobic slurs, and more.
Since the news of Gruden’s resignation broke, social media users have flooded their feeds with their opinions on Gruden and the state of the NFL. Since Monday night, the search term “Jon Gruden” has amassed 537,725 mentions and has reached 6.4 billion users. As you might imagine, 89.5% of the content regarding Gruden resulted in a negative sentiment score. Here are some of the top words dominating the conversation.
Over the past 24 hours, the conversation has shifted to a larger issue facing the NFL. The emails were discovered amidst the investigation into the Washington Football Team’s culture of sexual harassment of women. However, the Washington Post reports that no more of the emails will be released.
NFL won’t release more from WFT investigation despite anger over offensive emails https://t.co/IufQ0kU2oV
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 12, 2021
The emails Gruden exchanged were with Bruce Allen, former president of the Washington Football Team, but all of the focus is riding on Gruden. Some social media users are suggesting we take a look at the bigger issue facing the NFL as a whole. While Gruden’s remarks are awful and should not be condoned in any fashion, the NFL clearly has a larger problem surrounding their culture than the words of one team’s head coach.
Did the NFL direct a coordinated and deliberate hit job? The fact that Jon Gruden’s emails were the only ones that were leaked should raise all the red flags in the world. https://t.co/x1IAZJj5dB
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 13, 2021
Jon Gruden has always been this man. He’s always felt this way. We are better off knowing it and the league is better off without him. Just know, he ain’t the only one. Someone had to be receiving those emails too! https://t.co/louFtTX770
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) October 12, 2021
The NFL reviewed 650,000 emails in the Washington Redskins investigation. Why are Jon Gruden’s, which had nothing to do with the initial purpose of the investigation, the only emails to be leaked to the media?
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 12, 2021
Gruden may be the only one taking the blame as of now, and he deserves his fare share, but this story is not done unfolding quite yet. It will be interesting to see if any more of the NFL’s dirty laundry gets aired out in the weeks to follow.
Author: Jacob Luksik
