Jon Gruden wants back in the NFL. The former Las Vegas Raiders head coach finally addressed the media about the email scandal that swept his tenured career out of the league. He wants to rejoin primetime football, although he recognizes that his actions were ‘shameful.’
“I’m ashamed about what has come about in these emails, and I’ll make no excuses for it,” he said on Tuesday, Aug. 30 at the Little Rock Touchdown Club in Arkansas. “It’s shameful. But I am a good person. I believe that. I go to church. I’ve been married for 31 years. I’ve got three great boys. I still love football. I’ve made some mistakes. But I don’t think anybody in here hasn’t. And I just ask for forgiveness, and hopefully, I get another shot.”
Jon Gruden: “I’m a good person, I go to church” pic.twitter.com/LdJtBlm5I3
— GhettoGronk (@TheGhettoGronk) August 31, 2022
Late last year, Gruden resigned after releasing emails containing racist, homophobic and sexist language. The emails were during Gruden’s run as an analyst on “ESPN’s Monday Night Football” from 2011-18, and Gruden and his team of lawyers filed a lawsuit against the NFL.
Gruden contends that the league “selectively leaked his emails … to force him out of his job.” However, the emails contain scathing comments and racial slurs he made concerning Roger Goodell, DeMaurice Smith (NFLPA Chair), and even some NFL owners. The lawsuit is specifically against the NFL and its commissioner Roger Goodell.
“There is really no explanation or justification for why Gruden’s emails were the only ones made public out of the 650,000 emails collected in the NFL’s investigation of the Washington Football Team or why the emails were held for months before being released in the middle of the Raiders’ season,” Gruden’s attorney said then about the lawsuit.
Jon Gruden at the Little Rock Touchdown club commenting on the emails that ended his NFL coaching career. pic.twitter.com/1ClcWtdTRn
— Steve Sullivan (@sully7777) August 30, 2022
Still, Gruden believes he should be back in the NFL, and a judge in Nevada might agree with him. In May, Nevada judge Nancy L. Allf ruled in Gruden’s favor. Now there is the possibility of a jury trial that could stop the NFL’s motion to compel arbitration and stop the league’s motion to dismiss the case.
“I get choked up, you know, because there’s a lot of misunderstanding out there right now,” Gruden said with tears in his eyes in front of the supportive crowd.
Now the beleaguered coach who made his name by being a caricatured part of the media machine wants to bring some brevity to the mass media spectacle.
“What you read, what you hear, what you watch on TV. Hell, I worked at ESPN for nine years. I worked hard at that job. I don’t even want to watch the channel anymore because I don’t believe everything is true. And I know a lot of it is just trying to get people to watch. But I think we’ve got to get back to reality.”
In reality, under interim coach Rich Bisaccia, the Raiders went 7-5. They won their final four games last year, finishing 10-7 and claiming the team’s second playoff berth since 2002. UFC President Dana White also revealed how he was on a roll to get Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski to the desert until Gruden squashed it.
Jon Gruden might be a lot of things but living in reality doesn’t seem to be one of them.
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