Update: Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden to resign after email scandal widens
.JPG "Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden leaves after speaking during a news conference after an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021, in Las Vegas.")
UPDATE: Jon Gruden on Monday evening informed Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis that he is resigning as the NFL team’s head coach, the NFL Network reported.
ORIGINAL: Some in Raider Nation want Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden fired.
That is coming off the Raiders’ 20-9 loss to the Chicago Bears at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, in which the offense struggled in another slow start.
While it was doubtful Raiders owner Mark Davis would fire Gruden midway through the fourth year of his 10-year contract he signed prior to the 2018 NFL season, there are fans who want it to happen and were voicing their displeasure with Gruden.
Davis, however, could be forced into moving on, with Gruden also facing backlash for his comments he made about NFL Players Association chief DeMaurice Smith in a 2011 email to former Washington Football Team general manager Bruce Allen.
#FireGruden was trending on Twitter after the game.
The Raiders offense hasn’t scored a touchdown in the first quarter this season, but got going in the second half in each of the first four games. Not so in Sunday’s game against the Bears as the Raiders lost their second straight following a 3-0 start.
Gruden’s e-mails get worse
As if on-the-field struggles against the Bears weren’t bad enough, new — and even more disturbing — details about private e-mails Gruden exchanged while working as an ESPN analyst emerged late Monday afternoon in a report by the New York Times.
The Times reported that Gruden used homophobic slurs when referring to NFL commissioner Roger Goddell and other offensive language to “describe some NFL owners, coaches and journalists who cover the league.”
The NFL said they have sent the e-mails to the Raiders and are waiting to see how the team will handle the issue.
“League officials as part of a separate workplace misconduct investigation that did not directly involve him have found that Gruden, now the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, 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,” the Times reported.
“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 New York Times.”
This story was originally published October 10, 2021 at 9:32 PM.
