(ThyBlackMan.com) There are always surprise head coach departures during every NFL season but it will be hard for the 2021 season to top the resignation/ “firing” of Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden. Gruden is one of the most well-known head coaches in the NFL for many reasons from his “Chucky” nickname and grimaces to his ESPN Gruden QB Camps to his stint as a television football analyst for ESPN’s Monday Night Football. Unfortunately, Gruden will likely now be known for the likely end of his public football career for the disturbing, disgusting remarks he made in emails sent to Bruce Allen, then the president of the Washington Football Team, and others during a seven-year period that ended in 2018. The story has been covered by major media outlets like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The beginning of the end of Gruden’s second Raiders tenure was the 10-year-old email in which Gruden used a racial trope to disparage and describe NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith. As the dust settles on this slimy situation, it is clear that among the parties involved including Gruden, the Raiders, the NFL, and Smith that only DeMaurice Smith leaves the situation looking better than before the situation settled.
DeMaurice Smith’s work background prior to becoming the Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association is amazing. Smith had been a Washington D.C.-based criminal defense lawyer and partner in the law firm Patton Boggs. He had ties to Barack Obama and former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. Smith’s selection as the fourth-ever NFLPA Executive Director was a surprise back in 2009 as he went up against Troy Vincent, a former NFL player who was expected to succeed the late Gene Upshaw for the position. However, Smith not only won the job in 2009, he was elected to his second and third terms in 2012 and 2015, respectively. Days before Gruden’s departure from the Raiders, the NFL Players Association board of player representatives voted to retain Smith, despite his hold on the position being tenuous going into that vote. Although the NFL is the most popular sports league in North America, it is a challenge for DeMaurice Smith to represent the union as NFL players have much more members than other pro sports leagues and a shorter “work” life due to the brutal, physical nature of the sport and the cutthroat way NFL organizations treat players whether they are injured or not. It says a lot that Smith has lasted so long in that significant a position in sports.
The 2011 Jon Gruden email in question was sent to Bruce Allen, then the president of the Washington Football Team, and said that Smith had “lips the size of Michelin tires,” the Wall Street Journal reported. Not surprisingly, Gruden’s comments about Smith, who is a Black man, regarding the size of his lips have a negative connotation that has been longstanding regarding dehumanizing Black people for centuries in this country. Gruden was employed as an ESPN football analyst at the time and notes he was upset with the NFL lockout in 2011 as the reasoning for the racist description of Smith. Since the ignorant comment in the email about Smith, Gruden has been outed in the emails for making homophobic, misogynistic remarks about a variety of people and that led to his football demise. While Gruden looks like football’s version of Archie Bunker, DeMaurice Smith had a powerful response to the initial report to Gruden’s comment about him by saying, “The email from Jon Gruden – and some of the reaction to it-confirms that the fight against racism, racist tropes and intolerance is not over. This is not about an email as much as it is about a pervasive belief by some that people who look like me can be treated as less.”
The NFL’s response to the first report about Gruden’s racist trope about Smith was NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy saying, “The email from Jon Gruden denigrating DeMaurice Smith is appalling, abhorrent and wholly contrary to the NFL’s values”. The NFL looks a bit hypocritical making that statement with they had no issues with the Native American slur of the NFL team in Washington D.C. for decades and the racist imagery of the NFL team in Kansas City. The Raiders should have officially fired Gruden instead allowing it to look publicly like he resigned. Only DeMaurice Smith among all parties related to the situation can have his head held high as it relates to this ugly situation.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines