Jon Gruden continues to be in hot water over disparaging remarks he made in emails he sent in 2011.
Following a Wall St. Journal report that he used a racist trope to describe NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith in 2011, the NFL has provided several emails from that time to the Las Vegas Raiders, one of which included a vulgar remark about NFL commissioner Roger Goodel, Gruden confirmed to ESPN.
“I was in a bad frame of mind at the time [in 2011], and I called Roger Goodell a [expletive] in one of these emails, too,” Gruden said. “They were keeping players and coaches from doing what they love with a lockout.
“There also were a lot of things being reported publicly about the safety of the sports that I love. I was on a mission with high school football [in the Tampa, Florida, area] during that time, and there were a lot of parents who were scared about letting their kids play football. It just didn’t sit well with me.”
Gruden’s emails also included harsh words for a handful of team owners involved in the 2011 labor lockout, although the coach did not identify who those owners were, according to ESPN.
The NFL has said it is exploring disciplinary action against Gruden, although the Raiders head coach was not employed by the league at the time of the emails. Gruden did cover the league as ESPN’s Monday Night Football announcer, though.
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Gruden issued a public apology on Friday after his comments about Smith surfaced. The Raiders also issued a statement which called his comments “disturbing” and “not what the Raiders stand for,” adding that they are addressing the matter with the head coach.
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