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GRUDEN’S DEMISE
How did the treasure trove of Jon Gruden emails find their way, first to the Wall Street Journal and then to the New York Times?
Did a rogue NFL operative take it open themselves to expose Gruden? A WFT employee? A hacker? Possibly, but Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com firmly believes that this was a targeted operation from “the NFL” (which by implication means Roger Goodell).
Jon Gruden walked away on Monday night. There’s a good chance that, if he hadn’t, he would have been fired. There’s a better chance that this is exactly what the NFL wanted.
The obvious takeaway from Monday’s stunning leak of homophobic/transphobic/sexists emails following Friday’s stunning leak of one single racist email is that the NFL wanted Gruden out, and that the leaks were going to continue until he resigned or was fired.
The league wasn’t inclined to suspend Gruden. None of the emails released to date were sent when Gruden fell under the NFL’s jurisdiction. Even if he did (more on that below), there’s no specific provision of the Personal Conduct Policy that is directly violated by the contents of private communications.
Also, the league likely didn’t want to fight Gruden publicly over whether a suspension would have been appropriate. If Gruden had fought back, his lawyers would immediately have delved into the question of how, with more than 650,000 emails unearthed by the Washington Football Team investigation, only the emails Gruden sent to former Washington executive Bruce Allen have been released.
Then there’s the question of whether Gruden sent any inappropriate emails after he returned to the Raiders as head coach in early 2018. Allen remained with the Washington Football Team through the 2019 season. That’s two years of overlap. To date, the league has released no emails that Gruden sent to Allen in 2018 or 2019.
That could have been the next step, if Gruden hadn’t resigned tonight.
Then there’s this question — did Gruden ever make fun of Davis? It could be that those emails were being kept under wraps, with the not-so-subtle message to Davis being that, if Gruden stays, those emails will be leaked, too. And those emails, if they exist, surely would embarrass Davis.
If there are inappropriate emails sent by Gruden during his time as the Raiders coach, that would have made it easier to fire him for cause. With Gruden out and the incentive to keep leaking emails extinguished, we’ll likely never know.
Indeed, Gruden should demand that, in exchange for giving the league what it wants, the rest of the emails he sent will be treated like the rest of the 650,000 emails from the Washington investigation.
Florio is among those wondering how it is that a wall of secrecy has effectively surrounded the investigation into WFT culture – while Gruden was targeted and eliminated.
The NFL possesses a trove of 650,000 emails that previously were entirely hidden. The NFL has peeled off a small handful of those communications, for one or more specific purposes.
As a result, the NFL has opened the door to having all of the emails released.
In July, the NFL managed to announce the outcome of the Washington Football Team investigation without providing any transparency as to its findings. By adroitly tucking the ruling into the afternoon hours of Thursday, July 1 — at a time when most folks were sliding into a four-day July 4 weekend — the stunning failure to disclose details and to even commission a written report from the lawyer who investigated the situation in Washington went barely criticized and hardly noticed.
That has now changed, dramatically.
Whether to help NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith in the vote that determined his future on the job or to end the employment of Jon Gruden, the league selectively culled from the 650,000 emails a tiny subset of messages sent by someone who wasn’t even working for the organization at the time, or any other NFL team for that matter.
Does the league want us to regard Gruden as an outlier? Maybe. Or maybe the truth is that the league simply doesn’t want us to see how deep and dark and dirty the rabbit hole is. Gruden’s penpal, Bruce Allen, exchanged emails with plenty of people. Surely, he and Washington owner Daniel Snyder exchanged emails and text messages. Where are those?
This isn’t some fringe theory. More and more fans (and in turn, more and more media) are asking the questions that should have been asked in July. Why are the specific things that Snyder allegedly said or did being concealed?
As we wrote at the time, the league protected Snyder because that in turn protected other owners from finding themselves in a similar predicament, with scorched-earth reviews of business practices sparked by, potentially, false or embellished allegations (or, perhaps more accurately, credible allegations that they dismissed as false or embellished). No one wants to be audited, even if they haven’t cheated on their taxes. The WFT investigation amounted to an audit of the organization. By hiding the outcome of that audit, other owners could take some solace in the fact that, if they’re ever audited, the results will end up in an underground sarcophagus for a thousand years or longer.
That’s what would have happened, if the NFL hadn’t dipped into the WFT sarcophagus to selectively harvest and leak the Gruden emails. Now that the NFL has opened the door, others are insisting that other emails be released.
The fair and proper thing to do would be to release the full contents of the investigation. At a basic minimum, all of Allen’s emails should be released, including communications with employees of other teams and/or the league office. At a bare minimum, Allen’s email exchanges with Snyder should be disclosed.
Any other outcome is unacceptable. Any other outcome amounts to hypocrisy of the highest degree. Any other outcome makes the league complicit in any misconduct reflected in those emails, because the NFL continues to actively cover it up — the same way the NFL covered up the Gruden emails until the NFL realized that releasing them had one or more strategic benefits.
It should be noted that Gruden’s comments came while he was bloviating, often on a chain email, with trusted friends.
The Times is utterly silent as to how it obtained the emails:
He denounced the emergence of women as referees, the drafting of a gay player and the tolerance of players protesting during the playing of the national anthem, according to emails reviewed by The Times.
But it does note that Goodell was very much a part of the process that sent the emails to the Raiders for review.
Here is some of the rest of the Times story with the gory details:
Gruden’s messages were sent to Bruce Allen, the former president of the Washington Football Team, and others, while he was working for ESPN as a color analyst during “Monday Night Football.” In the emails, Gruden called the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, a “faggot” and a “clueless anti football pussy” and said that Goodell should not have pressured Jeff Fisher, then the coach of the Rams, to draft “queers,” a reference to Michael Sam, a gay player chosen by the team in 2014.
In numerous emails during a seven-year period ending in early 2018, Gruden criticized Goodell and the league for trying to reduce concussions and said that Eric Reid, a player who had demonstrated during the playing of the national anthem, should be fired. In several instances, Gruden used a homophobic slur to refer to Goodell and offensive language to describe some N.F.L. owners, coaches and journalists who cover the league.
Gruden, Allen, the N.F.L., and the Raiders did not respond to requests for comment.
Although not with a team at the time, Gruden was still influential in the league and highly coveted as a coach. He had won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following the 2002 season. And in 2018, he was hired for his second stint as the head coach of the Raiders franchise, which includes defensive lineman Carl Nassib, the first active N.F.L. player to publicly declare that he is gay.
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But Gruden’s behavior was not limited to 2011. Gruden exchanged emails with Allen and other men that included photos of women wearing only bikini bottoms, including one photo of two Washington team cheerleaders.
Gruden also criticized President Obama during his re-election campaign in 2012, as well as then-Vice President Joseph R. Biden, whom Gruden called a “nervous clueless pussy.” He used similar words to describe Goodell and DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the N.F.L. Players Association.
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Taken together, the emails provide an unvarnished look into the clubby culture of one N.F.L. circle of peers, where white male decision makers felt comfortable sharing pornographic images, deriding the league policies, and jocularly sharing homophobic language.
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Gruden’s emails to Allen, who was fired by the Washington Football Team at the end of 2019, were reviewed as part of an N.F.L. investigation of workplace misconduct within the franchise that ended this summer. Goodell instructed league executives to look at more than 650,000 emails during the past few months, including those in which Gruden made offensive remarks. Last week, Goodell received a summary of their findings and the league sent the Raiders some of the emails written by Gruden.
In the exchanges, Gruden used his personal email account while Allen wrote from his team account. In some cases, Allen initiated the conversations and Gruden chimed in, while in other cases, they trade vulgar comments several times.
Some of the emails between Gruden and Allen also included businessmen friends.. The exchanges begin as early as 2010 while Gruden was an analyst for “Monday Night Football.” In 2018, he signed a 10-year, $100 million contract to coach the Raiders.
Gruden and Allen are longtime friends and colleagues. Allen was a senior executive with the Raiders from 1995 to 2003, when he worked with Gruden, who was head coach of the team from 1998 to 2001. Gruden became head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002 and beat the Raiders in the Super Bowl that season. Allen became the general manager there in 2004. Allen and Gruden both left the Buccaneers after the 2008 season. While Gruden moved on to a broadcast role with ESPN, Allen became the general manager in Washington in 2010 and later the team’s president.
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Privately, Allen and Gruden appeared to have few boundaries in expressing homophobic and transphobic language. In one email from 2015 that includes Droste, McVay and others, Gruden crudely asked Allen to tell Bryan Glazer, whose family owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where Gruden coached until 2008, to perform oral sex on him. Allen said Glazer would “take you up on that offer.”
Allen and Gruden also mocked Caitlyn Jenner, who received an award from ESPN in 2015 after she transitioned.
In an email from 2015, Allen and Gruden criticized a congressional bill that aimed to force the Washington franchise to change its name, which the team stopped using last year. Again using a vulgar term, Gruden took aim at Goodell and his staff even though the commissioner had initially defended the team’s right to keep the name.
In 2017, Droste shared with the group a sexist meme of a female referee to which Gruden replied, “Nice job roger.”
That same year, Gruden was sent a link to an article about N.F.L. players calling on Goodell to support their efforts promoting racial equality and criminal justice reform. Gruden had advice for Goodell:
“He needs to hide in his concussion protocol tent,” he wrote.
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Jon Gruden is gone, never to return. But that is not enough for William C. Rhoden of The Undefeated. He wants those who “enabled” Gruden, presumably by listening without complaint, also to be hunted down and eradicated:
Jon Gruden is gone.
In a stunning turn of events that unfolded on Monday, Gruden was forced to resign as Las Vegas Raiders coach in the face of an avalanche of racist, anti-gay and misogynist emails first disclosed by The New York Times.
So, Gruden, who was in the fourth year of a $100 million contract, is history. That’s a good thing. But my concern is about the legion of enablers who supported Gruden all of these years.
What about them? Who are they?
The NFL has gotten rid of its Gruden problem. It has not gotten rid of Gruden-ism: regressive sensibilities that stand foursquare against diversity, inclusion and tolerance.
Gruden’s trip to the gallows began Friday when The Wall Street Journal reported that the 58-year-old coach used a racist trope in a 2011 email to then-Washington Redskins team president Bruce Allen to describe DeMaurice Smith, the NFL Players Association executive director. At the time, Gruden was the lead analyst for ESPN’s Monday Night Football. The leaked emails were part of an NFL investigation into workplace conditions inside the Washington Football Team organization. The investigation was concluded last summer.
What we don’t know is how Allen replied to Gruden. Was he sympathetic? Did he chastise Gruden? Did he respond with a LOL? Depending on his response, Allen, who was fired in 2019, should never again be allowed to work in the NFL.
As it pores through 650,000 emails, the NFL should round up the recipients of Gruden’s rants and out them as well. Tell us who they are. Did they know that Gruden held these views? Did they pass them off, as Donald Trump did during his presidential campaign, as “locker room talk”? People like Gruden need an audience. They thrive on friends and cronies who laugh at the racist jokes, who egg them on, who provide aid and comfort.
The reality is that the NFL, for all of its attempts to move forward, has been revealed as a regressive organization populated by white men who hold views about race and power that are antithetic to progress and enlightenment. Trust me, Gruden is not the only person who holds these beliefs. He’s the only one stupid enough, or emboldened enough, to express them via email.
Typically, Gruden does not see himself as a bigot. In reaction to The Wall Street Journal disclosure last week, Gruden defended himself by saying that he did not have a racist bone in his body. Indeed, the deluge of emails reported by the Times on Monday revealed that Gruden did not have just one racist bone: His entire being was consumed by bigotry.
Gruden checked all the boxes:
Racist. Check.
Bigot. Check.
Anti-gay. Check.
Misogynist. Check.
Just read his quotes. In the emails reviewed by the Times, no one was spared. He used “f—-t” to describe NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. He chastised the NFL for forcing the St. Louis Rams and then-coach Jeff Fisher to draft “a queer.” The reference was to Michael Sam, an openly gay player who was drafted by St. Louis in 2014. Gruden did not like the idea of women rising through the ranks as officials, either, and he certainly did not like player protests, complaining that NFL player Eric Reid, who continued to kneel during the playing of the national anthem, should have been fired.
My question is to whom was Gruden writing? Who was his audience? Were they league executives, powerful entities in other areas in the sports and broadcast industry? This could explain why former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was blackballed.
The people who enabled Gruden, who laughed at his racist jokes, guffawed and winked at his anti-gay quips, are still around. So why is it important that we root out these enablers? These enablers are in positions of power and control, making important decisions about who gets hired, who gets promoted and which initiatives are launched.
We need to know who these people are. How do we flush them out?
Am I surprised that Gruden resigned? I thought Gruden would only resign if Raiders players demanded his resignation. That was a battle the players would have not been able to win.
His persona was that of an entitled, charismatic frat boy who made thoughtless, off-the-cuff comments that were passed off as Jon being Jon. That was his allure in the broadcast booth: He would tell it like it is.
Raiders owner Mark Davis was so enamored with Gruden that he gave him an unprecedented 10-year, $100 million contract. Davis was forced to finally accept Gruden’s resignation after the deluge of email disclosures became public. You can’t have a person who spews this kind of ignorance working in your organization in any capacity.
As for Gruden, I was not surprised that he made the comments via email that were attributed to him. His persona was that of an entitled, charismatic frat boy who made thoughtless, off-the-cuff comments that were passed off as Jon being Jon. That was his allure in the broadcast booth: He would tell it like it is. That he has.
As for the 10 years that have passed since the recovered emails were revealed, in the war on racism, there is no statute of limitations. War criminals should be sought out and punished.
Jon Gruden is gone. Now the NFL should go after his enablers.
The Undefeated is run by ESPN. ESPN employed Gruden. Should ESPN be punished for not properly vetting an employee?
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So the NFL has a treasure trove of Bruce Allen emails. And they have shown the willingness to use them. More thoughts from Florio:
Many have said in the aftermath of Jon Gruden’s resignation that folks around the NFL are scrubbing their emails today. For some around the league, no amount of scrubbing will make a difference.
For those people, the damage is already done. For those people, the emails they sent to or received from former Washington executive Bruce Allen have become part of the 650,000 trove of documents that have been, but for a handful of Gruden emails, buried under a hundred yards of reinforced concrete.
The people who know Bruce Allen and who communicated with him during his time in Washington are nervous about what’s in there. About who else sent or received emails with racist, homophobic, transphobic, and/or misogynistic content. About whether they will be exposed, the same way Gruden was.
The right and fair outcome continues to be simple — release all of the Allen emails. Hell, release all 650,000 emails for full scrutiny. Selectively leaking (and the NFL definitely leaked selectively) the Gruden emails and then treating the rest of the emails like radioactive waste isn’t nearly good enough. Especially since, without current transparency, the NFL can simply dip into the cache of documents whenever it may choose in order to take action against someone who, for whatever reason, has landed on the NFL’s list of enemies or targets.
Look at what they did to Gruden. Leak one document, send “other materials” to the Raiders, and wait. Knowing what else was out there, Gruden foolishly (or stubbornly) didn’t quit. Knowing what else was out there, owner Mark Davis foolishly (or stubbornly) didn’t fire Gruden. So then the league leaked other documents, with the clear impression being that, if Gruden isn’t gone, still others will be leaked.
Others can find themselves in a similar predicament. Others may be approached about emails that haven’t yet been leaked, but with a request/suggestion that they quietly resign or retire or whatever now, or the emails will surface.
These emails become a powerful weapon, made even more powerful if they land in the wrong hands. The selective leaking of the emails proves that they’re already in the wrong hands. The only right thing to do, then, is to shine the light now. That brings out the truth, and it prevents the league from using the threat of disclosing the truth to manipulate others into doing whatever the league may want.
I know that’s a strong allegation. But, based on Gruden’s resignation and the circumstances surrounding it, it’s fair to conclude that the league already has done it once. If the emails aren’t released, nothing stops the league from doing it again.
But, why are you only in jeopardy if you emailed Bruce Allen? What about emails, as a 3rd party, to any other WFT employee from Daniel Snyder on down? And why only emails to WFT personnel? What exempts the Jaguars or the Chiefs or the Cowboys or any other team? What exempts the NFL Office? If this can be done to Jon Gruden, why not anyone else who ever emailed an NFL account?
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