American football: NFL: resignation of Raiders coach, accused of racism, misogyny and homophobia

« I resigned my job as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. I love the Raiders and I don’t want to be a distraction. (…) I never wanted to hurt anyone », Gruden wrote in a relay message on the NFL team’s Twitter account. « I have accepted Jon Gruden’s resignation from his role as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, » added team owner Mark Davis in another tweet.

Rich Bisaccia, who was part of the Gruden team, was appointed as interim head coach. Jon Gruden, 58, Super Bowl winner as Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003 and Raiders since 2018, comes after a tumultuous 72-hour period that began on Friday when the Wall Street Journal revealed that the The coach had used a racist comparison to describe in an email the leader of the players’ union, DeMaurice Smith.

The National Football League (NFL) condemned his remarks, calling them « appalling, odious and totally contrary to the values ​​of the NFL ». In comments to ESPN media over the weekend, Gruden said he was « ashamed » of his comments, assuring that there was « not an ounce of racism » in him.

– Anti-gay slurs –

But on Monday night, The New York Times revealed that it had examined several other emails from the coach in which he used homophobic and misogynistic slurs to denigrate the emergence of female umpires or the recruitment of a gay player – the only openly gay player. of the NFL, Carl Nassib, also flying to the Raiders.

In other emails, he scoffed at players who dropped to their knees during the US national anthem to protest police violence against blacks and called for them to be fired.

In emails the daily reviewed, Jon Gruden also used anti-gay slurs to attack NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and his efforts to fight concussions in American football.

DeMaurice Smith, the president of the players’ union screwed by racist remarks in a message from Gruden, said on Monday that the latter had contacted him after the revelations. « This is not just an email, but rather the common belief among some that people who look like me can be treated worse than others, » he said on social networks.

According to the New York Times, the emails came from a separate investigation that did not directly involve Gruden. They were destined for Bruce Allen, former president of the Washington football team, when Jon Gruden was working as a consultant for ESPN.

The Raiders, who moved from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020, have a record of three wins for two losses and can aim for the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

AFP