Already under investigation by the NFL for a 2011 email in which he used a racial trope to criticize NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, Raiders coach Jon Gruden admitted on Friday that he also used profane language to describe NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. According to The New York Times, however, Gruden’s questionable conduct extended far beyond those comments, with Ken Belson and Katherine Rosman reporting on Monday that the 58-year-old “casually and frequently used misogynistic and homophobic language” to denigrate his NFL peers from 2010 to 2018, when he joined the Raiders.
CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora a confirmed the content of e-mails obtained by the Times, which were sent by the NFL to the Raiders for review. Gruden’s early comments regarding Smith, which first surfaced in a the Wall Street newspaper report, and stemming from a separate workplace investigation into the Washington football team, is just one part of a bigger problem at hand. The league “is waiting for the Raiders to act,” according to La Canfora, but is ready to “step in” if Las Vegas does not resolve the situation beyond public denunciation of the Gruden emails.
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Gruden’s uncovered emails, which were sent to former Washington football president Bruce Allen, include messages criticizing the emergence of women as NFL referees, as well as secular or frustrated reactions to the Rams’ former draft pick, Michael Sam’s entry into the NFL as openly gay. player and league-wide tolerance former 49ers security Eric Reid to protest racism during the national anthem.
The emails, which span from 2010 to 2018, when the coach signed a 10-year contract with Las Vegas after years as a “Monday Night Football” analyst, include Gruden calling Goodell “f —– “and” anti-football p —- “, criticizing Goodell for allegedly pressuring then Rams coach Jeff Fisher to write” queers ” and messages to Allen containing pictures of topless cheerleaders from the Washington football team.
More than 650,000 emails were examined by NFL executives as part of the Washington workplace investigation, by The temperature. Gruden, who did not immediately respond to a Times request for comment, publicly stated only that he did not recall seeing the messages on Smith, but that his language “went too far” and did not hide the fact that he did not have “a blade of racism”.