Stephen A. Smith Praises NBA’s Proactivity While Blasting NFL’s Culture Problem: ‘Reeks of White Privilege’

Jon Gruden has resigned from the Las Vegas Raiders after deeply offensive emails written by the coach were uncovered. According to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, Gruden’s emails are part of a larger problem within the NFL.

“This is a grenade that has been dropped on the NFL and an implosion is about to take place,” Smith said before comparing the NFL’s culture to the NBA. “The NBA has successfully gone about the business of being a global brand. The NBA has been proactive, it’s not reactionary, they’re proactive.”

Smith noted that NFL players get to hide behind their helmets and league owners hide behind the commissioner, while NBA players and executives are often front and center.

“Now you get into the issue of diversity or lack thereof, there’s no minority representation in ownership with the NFL with the exception of Shahid Khan,” Smith said on ESPN’s First Take. “When you take that into consideration and then you see Jon Gruden, it reeks of ‘good ol’ boys club’ it reeks of White privilege.”

The racist, homophobic and misogynistic remarks Gruden made in emails over the span of seven years, were discovered as part of an investigation into the toxic workplace environment within the Washington Football Team franchise. Gruden’s offensive comments were found after league executives were told to review more than 650,000 emails during the WFT investigation.

Gruden was not expected to be part of the investigation, which has people questioning what other damning evidence might be inside the 650,000 emails to depict not only a toxic culture within the WFT, but possibly the entire league.

“You look at the emails that they discovered about Jon Gruden, it’s almost like you seem to have a problem with anything that ain’t White!” Smith said. “I’m not saying it literally, but that’s how it looks! You got problems with Blacks, you got problems with women, you got problems with the gay community.”

“Then you’re calling the commissioner the p-word,” Smith continued. “You’re calling a democratic vice president the p-word, you’re just throwing it all out there!”

Watch above via ESPN