Jon Gruden didn’t step down as the Oakland Raiders’ head coach on Monday because the NFL successfully expelled an outlier in their league. He stepped down because the NFL has cultivated such a debaucherous culture that they can accidentally discover one sexist while investigating another.
In emails sent by Gruden to the former president of the Washington Football Team Bruce Allen and others between 2011 and 2018, Gruden referred to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell with homosexual slurs, perpetuated racist stereotypes about Black people by comparing NFL Players Association President DeMaurice Smith’s lips to Michelin tires, and scoffed at the idea of the NFL introducing female referees. These emails only came to light due to the NFL’s extensive workplace misconduct investigation into the Washington Football Team, and not because there was any expressed concern over the conduct of one of the most well-liked figures in NFL circles.
