If you’re watching Monday Night Football, then you just saw what I just saw. Jon Gruden is now saying that he plans to resign as the head coach of the Raiders. Last week, emails surfaced that exposed Gruden for insulting DeMaurice Smith and saying he “has the lips of Michelin tires,” which many believe carried the intent of racism. Gruden responded to this by apologizing, claiming that his words harbored no bigotry, and saying that he had no hate for anyone. Many people disagreed about the intent of Gruden’s email, saying that it perpetuated a racial trope, but Gruden also had many members of the NFL community come to his defense saying that while what he did was wrong, they believed him when he said his comments had no racist intents. After watching Mike Tirico on Sunday Night Football defend Gruden, it seemed like this would definitely not be the end of Gruden’s reign of head coach for the Raiders.
That all changed today when more emails surfaced from Gruden. Remember, the dude made a big claim that he never has the intent of being prejudiced to any group, but the new emails show him being pretty homophobic. He used the f-slur, and said that the Rams shouldn’t have drafted “queers” in reference to Michael Sam, who was the first gay guy to be drafted to the NFL.
So, after all that came out, which pretty clearly showed that he sometimes does have some prejudiced intent to his words, Jon Gruden told his coaching staff that he plans to resign. I’d say that’s a good call Jonny Boy. You kind of screwed yourself big time.
