NBC’s Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy Defend Jon Gruden Over Offensive Email: ‘Not Going to Chalk Everything Up to Racism’

Mike Tirico and Tony Dungy were among the few to publicly defend Jon Gruden over the weekend, after a decade-old racially insensitive email from the Raiders head coach was revealed.

Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal released a 2011 email from Gruden, in which he used a racist trope to describe NFL Players Association director DeMaurice Smith.

“Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin tires,” Gruden wrote. But during the Sunday Night Football pregame show on NBC, Tirco and Dungy were not inclined to judge the NFL head coach off the racist remark.

“He said that it wasn’t racial, he was making a comment about DeMaurice Smith, and he basically attacked his character,” Dungy said of Gruden. “I will accept that and just say it was an immature way to do it. It wasn’t the right way to do it. But it was 10 years ago. And I’m not going to chalk everything up to racism. I think we accept his apology, move forward and move on.”

Both Dungy and Tirico have unique connections to the disgraced Raiders coach. Dungy was replaced by Gruden as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002 and Tirico spent seven seasons as Gruden’s broadcast partner on ESPN for their Monday Night Football booth. Gruden and Tirico were broadcast partners in 2011, when the now Raiders coach sent the damning email.

“I was with Jon at that time,” Tirico began. “Seven years as my partner on Monday Night Football. I probably know Jon better than anybody in the league on a personal level. He said it right, he was ashamed by the comments in the email. The comments in the email are wrong.”

“But, my experience kind of parallels Tim Brown, who played for Jon…he said he never experienced or saw anything that would say Jon was racist in any way. That is exactly the experience I had, those seven years of traveling, three days together on the road together every week.”

Former NFL quarterback Drew Brees was noticeably offset during the discussion, despite being part of NBC’s Sunday Night Football studio show alongside Dungy and Tirico.

Watch above via NBC