Photo: Chris Unger / Getty Images
The phrase “We see faces, we do not know hearts” can be used perfectly in the case of Jon Gruden , who on Monday stopped being the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders when uncovering one of the biggest scandals in recent years in the NFL .
Gruden, admired through decades as a charismatic coach and television analyst, has shaken audiences and hurt the league’s image by revealing the existence of emails that systematically included racist, homophobic and misogynistic offenses .
The man popularly known as “Chucky,” who won a Super Bowl as head coach and who was in the middle of a record $ contract. 100 million dollars with the Raiders , it turned out to be a fraud.
The Wall Street Journal uncovered the scandal
when posting on October 8 that Gruden had written in an email from 2011 a racist description of DeMaurice Smith, who is the executive director of the NFL players union, saying that he had “lips the size of Michelin tires ”.
That was just the beginning. Then everything happened very fast.
Post office Jon Gruden’s offensive emails were sent for years
The emails exchanged by Gruden and his friend Bruce Allen , former president of the Washington team, were unexpectedly found during an investigation carried out by the NFL within said franchise regarding a series of scandals that reflected their dysfunction, including a culture of sexual harassment .
According to a report by The New York Times , Gruden’s emails were found among more than 650, 000 documents reviewed in the investigation that relate to the team and appeared in a period of seven years until 2018. Most of those years Gruden was a star commentator and the highest paid in all of ESPN .
For example, in an email Gruden commented that Commissioner Roger Goodell was a “fagot” (fagot). Also criticized Goodell for allegedly pressuring the St. Louis Rams to draft “queers” in reference to linebacker Michael Sam , whom the Rams chose in 2014 after he had made public his homosexuality.
Gruden against from Kaepernick and also from Obama and Biden
The New York Times also revealed that Gruden’s emails included comments against players who knelt during the National Anthem to demonstrate against social injustice following the example of Colin Kapernick . For example, Gruden said that Eric Reid, Kaepernick’s former teammate, should be fired.
Also, the famous “Coach Chucky” exchanged photos of cheerleader nudes of the Washington team , one of the many scandals in that franchise, which even had to rename to 2020.
Gruden’s hateful comments even extended to politics by criticizing then-President Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the vice president, to whom the coach said “fag nervous and stupid “.
Sad question: How many others like Gruden still working in the NFL?
The Times report says Gruden’s emails were sent from his personal account, but Allen, the former Washington executive, did so from his team account.
The now ex-coach also made fun of the appearance of women in an email exchange on the NFL referee squads and criticized offensively the NFL’s policy to try to reduce concussions.
In short, Jon Gruden’s emails represent many of the things that the NFL – and society in general – have been fighting in recent years. years. But they have also raised new questions about how much of that culture of intolerance exists around the league and when new scandals will explode that involve other personalities.