The Las Vegas Raiders now have to deal with the fallout of Jon Gruden stepping down as head coach in the wake of reports about him using homophobic and misogynistic language, as well as a racist trope, in a series of emails sent between 2011-18.
We are now finding out when the league knew about these emails as Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio notes the investigation began in July 2020, with a punishment announced on July 1 of this year. However, the Raiders were not informed of any Gruden emails until “early in the week of October 4,” per Florio.
It begs the question as to why the league would wait until the season began to bring this all to light as everything could’ve been handled over the summer and likely have died down by now.
“So why did the Raiders get emails about which the league had known for months during the regular season? If this had come to a head in, January, owner Mark Davis could have hired a new coach who would have spent the offseason preparing to move forward,” Florio writes. “If the league had waited until after the current season ended, Davis could have replaced Gruden then. Instead, the delivery of the emails to the Raiders — coupled with the making of just enough of them public — forced the team’s hand.”
The NFL screwed up this situation in every way possible and they continue to do so by stating that “no other current team or league personnel” sent any problematic emails that the league uncovered during its investigation.
If you ask Derek Carr, he thinks that all texts and emails should be open.
“If we just started opening up everybody’s private emails and texts, people would start sweating a little bit. … Hopefully not too many. But maybe that’s what they should do for all coaches and GMs and owners from now on, is open up,” the Raiders’ quarterback said Wednesday. “You’ve got to open up everything. See what happens.”
Of his former coach, Carr said: “I love the man, [but] you hate the sin. No one’s perfect.”
