What Black Men Can Learn From Jon Gruden Being Fired.....

What Black Men Can Learn From Jon Gruden Being Fired.....

Say what you want about Jon Gruden – and plenty of people have – but he does have a novel take on equality. In a series of emails reported by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal over the last week, the now former Las Vegas Raiders coach insulted pretty much every section of America. Black people (he said NFL Players Association leader DeMaurice Smith had “lips the size of michellin [sic] tires”); gay people (he bemoaned the fact that the NFL was encouraging teams to draft “queers”); women (he doesn’t like them refereeing games, preferring men to make a mess of pass interference calls); peaceful protesters (he said Eric Reid, who knelt alongside Colin Kaepernick, should be fired – no idea where he got that one from); and future heads of state (he called then-US vice president Joe Biden a “nervous clueless pussy” in 2012). To prove he wasn’t prejudiced he also insulted his own demographic: overpromoted, rich white guys who are not particularly good at their jobs (he called NFL commissioner a “faggot” and a “clueless anti football pussy”). And that’s just the stuff he wrote down. There are several takeaways from the incident. First of all, for a man who, judging by his emails, thinks the NFL is being overtaken by gutless cowards, Gruden sure looks like one himself. Because, despite making a career portraying himself as one someone who Tells It Like It Is, he didn’t even have the courage to insult any of his targets to their face. Jon Gruden had been Raiders coach since 2018 NFL players attack ‘fraud’ Jon Gruden after racist and homophobic emails Read more The emails were sent during his time in the broadcast booth with ESPN, which spanned the period of NFL player protests. But at no point did he say he disagreed with them or think that Reid should lose his job. When one of his own players, Carl Nassib, became the first active NFL player to come out as gay, Gruden said: “I learned a long time ago what makes a man different is what makes him great.” In this case “a long time ago” is clearly after 2014, when he didn’t want gay players in the league. Gruden appears to think women in football are either to be despised (those pesky female refs) or ogled at (he exchanged topless photos of cheerleaders with former Washington Football Team president Bruce Allen), but he was happy to be paid by one – the Raiders had a female chief executive, Amy Trask, during his first stint with the team. And despite the fact that he thinks it’s acceptable to use racist stereotypes in emails to his friends, he showed a different side to his Black players: “He’s never rubbed me a certain way, that type of way,” said Raiders running back Josh Jacobs on Sunday.

Oshay Duke Jackson