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Did the NFL deliberately leak the racist, homophobic Jon Gruden emails to the public so that he could get fired? One NFL insider believes that’s the case.
Last week the Wall Street Journal obtained emails Gruden sent to former Washington exec Bruce Allen in 2011 that showed Gruden using a racist trope to mock NFLPA’s Demaurice Smith.
Jon Gruden, head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, used a racist trope when describing the top NFL players' executive in a 2011 email https://t.co/FYHLHqrOsY
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 8, 2021
On Monday night, the NY Times obtained emails that in which Gruden used homophobic language to bash NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
A trove of emails reviewed by The New York Times show Raiders Coach Jon Gruden went beyond previously disclosed racist comments to issue broad tirades against gay people, women and concussion safety in the NFL. https://t.co/KXWIUg9DhU
— NYT Sports (@NYTSports) October 12, 2021
Considering the emails were discovered in a workplace misconduct investigation by the NFL, one NFL insider strongly suspects that the league deliberately leaked the emails until Gruden got fired or resigned.
Per the @nytimes, commissioner Roger Goodell instructed league executives to look at more than 650,000 emails during the past few months during its investigation into the workplace culture of the Washington Football Team.
The only emails we've gotten so far are about Jon Gruden. https://t.co/OCzU37ZsFS
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 12, 2021
On Monday night after the latest leak, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio theorized that the NFL was going to continue leaking emails until Gruden was fired or resigned on his own.
There's some high level chess/checkers going on with Gruden. The league doesn't want to suspend him. The league wants the Raiders to fire him. The league likely will keep leaking more emails until the Raiders fire him.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 12, 2021
Florio would later expand on his theory once Gruden officially resigned as Raiders head coach.
The NFL likely would have kept leaking Jon Gruden emails until Jon Gruden was no longer the coach of the Raiders. https://t.co/PHOOmY7eeE
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 12, 2021
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.