Coach Jon Gruden’s Swift Fall From Grace. Yeah, About That
The world got a glimpse into the seamy underside of the NFL’s old boys network and, boy, was it ugly. Five takeaways from the reckoning.
Jon Gruden has long been a well-liked and influential figure in NFL circles and has enjoyed a long run as one of the public faces of the league. Well-known for his boyish appearance but intense scowl, “Chuckie” was a Super Bowl winning coach, a respected ESPN and Monday Night Football analyst and commentator, and — -until a few days ago — -the Coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
This past weekend, the world got a shocking glimpse into a very different side of Jon Gruden than the one that he reveals publicly. Years of emails revealed a man who checks pretty much every box of toxic vileness and bigotry one could imagine: racism, misogyny, homophobic slurs, criticizing efforts to reduce concussions and head injuries, and more.
The public became aware of this over the course of two media reports about Gruden’s private emails. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that “Jon Gruden Used Racial Trope to Describe NFLPA Chief DeMaurice Smith in 2011 Email.” In the email exchange between Gruden, who was an ESPN analyst at the time and…
