{"id":1616,"date":"2021-10-12T23:49:53","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T23:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/?p=1616"},"modified":"2021-11-02T03:40:39","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T03:40:39","slug":"jon-grudens-racism-wasnt-enough-to-be-fired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/12\/jon-grudens-racism-wasnt-enough-to-be-fired\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Gruden\u2019s racism wasn\u2019t enough to be fired"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Jon Gruden abruptly resigned as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders after a two-day onslaught of emails were released that exposed racist, misogynistic, and homophobic comments. The messages were sent to former <a href=\"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/18\/jasons-wrights-hire-as-first-black-team-president-is-long-overdue-in-the-nfl\/\">Washington Football Team President<\/a> Bruce Allen between 2010-2018 and have been recently uncovered during the&nbsp;team\u2019s workplace culture investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the emails were initially released, it was his offensive comments about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nflpa.com\">NFLPA<\/a> Executive Director DeMaurice Smith that publicly came to light. Gruden specifically stated \u201cDuumboriss Smith has the lips the size of Michelin tires\u201d which was a clear racist attack of a black man although he stated otherwise.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nonetheless Gruden went on to coach the Raiders versus Bears game on Sunday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAll I can say is that I\u2019m not racist,\u201d Gruden said following the game. \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how sick I am. I apologize again to De Smith, but I feel good about who I am and what I\u2019ve done my entire life. I apologize for the insensitive remarks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, all was forgiven in the sports world and everything went back to business as usual. A simple apology was enough and it was time to move on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/demauricesmith\/status\/1447697994657239042?s=20\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The tune changed when more emails were leaked shortly after that exposed homophobic slurs towards NFL Commissioner Roger Goddell and references to Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted by the Rams. He also expressed that &nbsp;Eric Reid should be blackballed for kneeling and did not support female referees in the league.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Suddenly after these emails were leaked, Gruden resigned as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&quot;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\u2019m sorry, I never meant to hurt anyone.&quot;<br><br>Jon Gruden<\/p>&mdash; Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Raiders\/status\/1447744629168693250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 12, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The most disappointing aspect of this entire situation is that his first email comments about Smith was not enough of a catalyst for Gruden to be dismissed. Then to add insult to injury, he was allowed to save face by turning in his own resignation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on repeated examples, racism is not an intolerable act in the NFL and throughout most organizations. It\u2019s also clear that the goal post moves depending on who commits the act. If a black coach would have been in Gruden\u2019s shoes or even Urban Meyer\u2019s, there would have been swift discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It took disparaging comments against the NFL Commissioner and others before Gruden was held accountable for his actions. It was another reminder to people of color that their feelings don\u2019t matter. A racist comment towards a black, high-level executive can be easily dismissed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The truth of the matter is, if those other emails were not released, Jon Gruden would still be coaching in this league unscathed.&nbsp;But like the old saying goes, what happens in the dark always comes to light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jon Gruden may be gone but this won\u2019t be the last incident of its kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jon Gruden&#8217;s racist emails about NFLPA Director DeMaurice Smith were easily forgiven. It took the addition of homophobia and misogyny to finally prompt his dismissal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-1616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-features"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Jon-Gruden.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1616"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1634,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1616\/revisions\/1634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}