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Jon Gruden, Raiders coach, resigns as homophobic, misogynistic comments are revealed in emails
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- Jon Gruden, Raiders coach, resigns as homophobic, misogynistic comments are revealed in emails
Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden resigned Monday night amid reports that he repeatedly used homophobic and misogynistic language in a series of emails over a period of seven years.
"I love the Raiders and do not want to be a distraction," he said in a statement . "Thank you to all the players, coaches, staff, and fans of Raider Nation. I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt anyone."
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Gruden's resignation came a little more than an hour after The New York Times revealed excerpts of the 58-year-old coach's emails , which were sent between 2011 and 2018 and obtained by the NFL as part of an unrelated investigation.
The Times reported that, among other things, Gruden used a homophobic slur to describe NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, denigrated one team's decision to draft a gay player, mocked transgender woman Caitlyn Jenner, deprecated female referees and suggested that a player who kneeled during the national anthem should be fired.
The Wall Street Journal separately reported Friday that Gruden used a racist trope when describing NFL Players' Association executive director DeMaurice Smith in a 2011 email.
The NFL obtained Gruden's emails as part of an unrelated investigation into the culture of the Washington Football Team under owner Daniel Snyder – a probe that resulted in a $10 million fine for the team, but no written report detailing the transgressions that investigators uncovered.
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The emails offer a window into the private conversations of two longtime NFL decision-makers: Gruden, who spent more than a decade as the head coach of the Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers , and Bruce Allen, who was a high-ranking executive on three teams, including Washington.
According to The New York Times , Gruden – who was an ESPN broadcaster at the time – sent the emails from his personal account to Allen's team account. In one of the messages between the two men, Gruden refers to Goodell as a "clueless anti football p--sy," according to The New York Times.
Another exchange included pictures of topless women, including one such photo of two Washington cheerleaders, the newspaper reported.
Gruden also used a homophobic term when referring to the then-St. Louis Rams' decision to draft Michael Sam, an openly gay defensive end. One of Gruden's players in Las Vegas, defensive lineman Carl Nassib , came out as gay earlier this year.
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NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy confirmed last week that the league had become aware of emails sent by Gruden as part of the WFT investigation and passed them along to Raiders executives. In response to a request for comment Monday, McCarthy referred USA TODAY Sports to his previous statement on the Smith email, which the league described as "appalling, abhorrent and wholly contrary to the NFL's values."
Raiders owner Mark Davis echoed those sentiments in his own statement Friday, referring to Gruden's email about Smith as "disturbing" and "not what the Raiders stand for."
On Monday night, Davis' only comment was a one-sentence statement indicating that he had accepted Gruden's resignation.
Gruden was in the fourth year of a 10-year, $100 million contract. The Raiders announced that special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia will serve as the team's interim coach in his place . Las Vegas is set to play the Denver Broncos on Sunday.
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Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad . Follow USA TODAY Sports' Mike Jones on Twitter @ByMikeJones .
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jon Gruden, Raiders coach, resigns after more damaging emails emerge
