NFL Investigating Raiders Coach Jon Gruden For Using ‘Appalling’ Racist Trope in 2011 Email
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Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden is under fire, after a racist email he sent in 2011 resurfaced.
At the time he sent the email to then-Washington Football Team President Bruce Allen, Gruden was a broadcaster for ESPN. In the message, he criticized NFL Players’ Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, a Black man.
“Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin tires,” he wrote.
The Wall Street Journal said the league is currently “reviewing Gruden’s status with the Raiders for potential discipline.” In a statement, the NFL said the email was “appalling, abhorrent, and wholly contrary to the NFL’s values.”
Gruden told the Journal that he didn’t remember writing that specific email, but that he is “really sorry” and wan’t intending to play into a racist stereotype, saying that he didn’t like how Smith was handling the the league’s lockout at the time and was trying to portray Smith as a liar by using the phrase “rubber lips.”
“I was upset,” Gruden told the Journal. “I used a horrible way of explaining it.”
“I don’t think he’s dumb. I don’t think he’s a liar,” he added. “I don’t have a racial bone in my body, and I’ve proven that for 58 years.”
Smith told the Journal he has heard numerous racist comments due to his line of work.
“This is a thick skin job for someone with dark skin, just like it always has been for many people who look like me and work in corporate America,” Smith told the Journal. “You know people are sometimes saying things behind your back that are racist just like you see people talk and write about you using thinly coded and racist language.”
According to the Journal, the NFL became aware of other problematic emails while investigating workplace misconduct at the Washington Football Team, where Gruden’s brother, Jay Gruden, formerly served as head coach. That investigation resulted in the team being fined $10 million.
This post has been corrected to reflect that Jay Gruden was head coach at the Washington Football Team, not Jon Gruden.
