Jon Gruden’s Racist Remarks To Resignation


On October 11th, Jon Gruden resigned from his job as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Past emails written by Gruden containing racist, homophobic, and misogynistic remarks were found in an investigation conducted by NFL officials and led to the resignment. In fact, this wasn’t targeted at him as it was a separate workplace misconduct investigation, but during their scan of emails, Gruden’s remarks were found. 

In these emails (which were sent while Gruden was working as a color analyst for “Monday Night Football”) he spoke against having women as referees, the drafting of a gay player, and players protesting during the national anthem. Gruden used harmful language when criticizing league commissioner, Roger Goodell, and the executive director of the NFL Players Association, DeMaurice Smith. 

These comments by Gruden have hit both the local RHS community as well as the NFL hard. RHS Senior and co-host of the NFL 365 podcast, David Tashian, said that “even though it happened ten years ago, what Jon Gruden did was completely racially insensitive, and he also disrespected many other communities. What he did was unacceptable and he does not deserve another chance in the NFL.”  Also, one of the defensive linemen on the raiders, Carl Nassib, was the first active NFL player to publicly come out as gay, and he was deeply upset about the Gruden situation. So much so that he took a personal day off to recover. It is clear that Jon Gruden won’t be having a future in the NFL, and for good reason. He has hurt lots of people and has added to the bad reputation that some NFL higher-ups already have. 

The players of the Las Vegas Raiders were probably most affected by the resignation of Gruden. Weeks ago they looked up to him, but now many people see Gruden in a different light. The Raiders also have a new coach named Rich Bassachia. With this situation, we hope that the NFL community, Ridgewood community, and anybody in general understands how such remarks can be offensive, with many negative consequences. 

Sean Hughes
Staff Writer

Graphic: Isabella Harelick

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