Jon Gruden will no longer coach the NFL's only openly gay player, nor the rest of the Las Vegas Raiders, after homophobic emails came to light on Monday.
The New York Times reported on Monday that the Las Vegas Raiders head coach "casually and frequently unleashed misogynistic and homophobic language over several years to denigrate people around the game and to mock some of the league's momentous changes." About two hours after the paper's report, Gruden confirmed in a statement he had resigned.
NFL Media's Tom Pelissero first reported Gruden had decided to resign.
In "several" messages, Gruden called NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a "faggot," according to the paper. He also said that Goodell shouldn't have pressured then-Rams coach Jeff Fisher to draft "queers," referring to defensive end Michael Sam, who came out as gay in the lead-up to the 2014 NFL Draft.
Sam was cut by the Rams following the 2014 preseason. Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib came out as gay this June, becoming the first active NFL player to do so.
"I learned a long time ago what makes a man different is what makes him great," Gruden wrote in a text message to the Las Vegas Review-Journal following Nassib’s announcement.
Neither Gruden, the Raiders nor the league responded to the New York Times’ request for comment on Monday.
Gruden’s emails were uncovered in the NFL's workplace misconduct investigation into former Washington Football Team executive Bruce Allen, whom Gruden worked with during his first stint coaching the Raiders and his tenure with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Gruden, working as an ESPN analyst at the time and using his private email address, routinely used racist, misogynistic, hompohobic and transphobic language in the emails. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported on an email in which Gruden used a racist trope to describe the appearance of DeMaurice Smith, head of the NFL Players Association, during the 2011 NFL lockout.
"Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin [sic] tires," Gruden wrote.
The Raiders on Friday said the email about Smith was "disturbing and not what the Raiders stand for." Gruden apologized in a statement to the Wall Street Journal on Friday, and again after coaching the Raiders on Sunday to a 20-9 loss to the Chicago Bears. He said he didn't have a "blade" nor an "ounce" of racism in his press conference, and that he uses the term "rubber lips" to refer to liars.
Exaggerated lip size is common in racist portrayals of Black people, including white people wearing blackface.
Prior to Sunday's game, ESPN reported that Gruden "disparaged" Goodell "with a vulgar remark" and ripped multiple team owners during the lockout in emails the NFL uncovered in the Allen investigation. ESPN reported the league shared those emails with the Raiders. Gruden told the outlet he was "in a bad frame of mind" at the time of the messages.
Gruden coached the Raiders in Oakland from 1998-2001, rejoining the franchise in 2018 after spending nine seasons in ESPN's "Monday Night Football" booth. He was the Raiders' head coach for their final two seasons in Oakland, moving with the Silver and Black to Las Vegas in 2020.
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