Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Sexism, homophobia, racism
NFL coach resigns after email scandal
US sport is rocked by yet another discrimination scandal. Jon Gruden resigns as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders after the NFL coach was first accused of making racist remarks and later also of sexist and homophobic emails.
Jon Gruden has resigned as head coach of the NFL team Las Vegas Raiders because of bad insults. After he had already been accused of racist remarks, new revelations of misogynist and gay-hostile e-mails by the “New York Times” led to the end.
“I love the raiders and don’t want to be a disturbance for them,” said Gruden in his statement on the raiders’ homepage: “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.” The previous assistant, Rich Bisaccia, will initially take on Gruden’s duties as interim trainer.
The “Wall Street Journal” had already revealed on Friday that Gruden had racially insulted the head of the players’ union DeMaurice Smith. In an email he wrote that Smith had “lips the size of Michelin tires.” The NFL condemned the statements as “appalling, horrific and completely contrary to its own values”.
At the weekend, Gruden told ESPN that he was ashamed of his words and that he had “no traces of racism” in him. On Monday evening, the “New York Times” then published further emails from the head coach from 2011 to 2018 with various gay and misogynistic insults. Among other things, he had referred to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as a “fagot” and “pussy”. During this time, Gruden worked as an expert for the US broadcaster ESPN.
Gruden, who was head coach of the Raiders from 1998 to 2001 and for a second term since 2018, won the Super Bowl against the Raiders in January 2003 in his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After his return he trained there in Carl Nassib, the only open gay NFL player to date. Nassib came out in June and received great popularity far beyond the borders of the league.