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Until yesterday (October 11), Jon Gruden was known around the NFL as a brilliant offensive mind and helped lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to their first Super Bowl title in 2003. After a series of emails were flagged by the NFL and sent to the Las Vegas Raiders, Gruden stepped down as head coach of the team, prompting many online to remind the world that Colin Kaepernick was indeed correct about the league’s widespread racism.
Last Friday (October 8), the Wall Street Journal published a scathing report highlighting that Gruden used racist language towards NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith in an email dating back to 2011. The email was initially sent to the president of the Washington Football Team in the summer of that year while the league and players were in the middle of negotiating terms regarding a lockout.
In the email, Gruden said Smith had, “lips the size of Michelin tires” according to the Journal’s account. Gruden was not an employee of the NFL at the time but was part of the television crew that covered games for Monday Night Football. Gruden told ESPN reporters that he had no recollection of writing the email but did offer an apology. Gruden then lazily explained that the term “rubber lips” was used as a way to refer to a person lying.
“I’m ashamed I insulted De Smith,” Gruden said to EPSN. “I never had a racial thought when I used it. I’m embarrassed by what’s out there. I certainly never meant for it to sound that bad.”
Right.
Twitter is currently smoking on that Jon Gruden pack right now and we’ve got the reactions below. It should be noted that Tim Tebow, who really stunk it up in his recent comeback attempts, got more chances than a man who took his team to the Super Bowl. You don’t have to guess why, either, especially not now.
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