The NFL is far from perfect when it comes to progress. That much is clear when you look at everything from the league’s normalization of life-altering concussions to its handling of Colin Kaepernick’s activism to it’s terrible track record on domestic violence and its latest scandal—Jon Gruden’s emails.
The Las Vegas Raiders head coach resigned this week after emails he sent between 2010 and 2018, during his time as the host of Monday Night Football, surfaced. In the exchanges, Gruden repeatedly used racist, misogynistic and homophobic language, and slammed the decision to draft of the NFL’s first gay player, Michael Sam, in 2011.
Gruden repeatedly used homophobic slurs describing the commissioner of the NFL, and suggested the commissioner had pressured a team to draft “queers” in reference to Sam.
Within hours of the emails coming out Gruden resigned, sharing a short statement.
“I love the Raiders and do not want to be a distraction,” he wrote. “I’m sorry, I never meant to hurt anyone.”
Obviously Gruden had to go. But he didn’t really apologize for the content of those emails. He didn’t explain why they were wrong, or if his attitudes have changed. And the league has failed to indicate they will do anything to weed out these kinds of hateful attitudes in the future, or the ranks of professional football guys who still think casual homophobia, sexism and racism is okay.
Homophobia is still a problem in sports
In a a recent University of Ohio study, researchers spoke to 4,000 U.S. adults about their experience interacting with sports. Half of LGBTQ2S+ respondents said that they had experienced discrimination, insults, bullying or abuse while playing, watching or talking about sports.
Researchers also found that athletes themselves are leading the charge when it comes to normalizing homosexuality in sports, while fans and coaches are more likely to assume heterosexuality.
“At best, this can create awkward and uncomfortable situations for LGBTQ people. At worst, these assumptions may make athletes, coaches and fans more comfortable openly maligning LGBTQ people,” the study’s authors wrote in The Conversation.
At a corporate brand level, the NFL is trying to put on a rainbow face. Back in June, the league tweeted a video with phrases like “football is gay,” “football is strong” and “football is transgender,” along with a pledge to donate to The Trevor Project.
“If you love this game, you are welcome here,” the final caption reads. “Football is for all. Football is for everyone.”
The video came in the wake of Carl Nassib coming out as gay. A defensive end for the Raiders, Nassib became the first active NFL player to come out (Sam never made it onto a regular season roster). The fact that Nassib plays for the Raiders is a bit of cruel irony considering Gruden’s actions.
Nassib hasn’t spoken publicly since Gruden’s emails leaked, but did take a personal day away from the team Wednesday.
The “football is gay” message and celebration of Nassib’s coming out came with little acknowledgement of how awfully the league treated Sam. There was no video of support back then—and that’s not even getting into how poorly the league handled Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the national anthem and other issues of anti-Black racism from team executives, coaches and officials.
All of these controversies have come and gone with little response from league leadership. Former NFL player Ryan O’Callaghan, who came out after retiring from football, told USA Today that Gruden’s emails weren’t a surprise.
“It doesn’t matter when he said the f-word or used [homophobic] slurs, it’s never okay,” O’Callaghan said. “My hope is that he’s educated himself since then to know better. But part of it isn’t surprising. I used to hear ‘no homo’ type comments in the NFL and slurs in locker rooms growing up. If we dug through other [coaches’] trash, it’d be interesting to see what we’d find.”
During his appearance on the show this week, O’Callaghan said he was disappointed with the brief statement from Gruden and wanted to see more in the way of apology or moving forward.
“The majority of those emails were a decade ago, and I’m the type of person that believes in growth,” O’Callaghan said. “People change, and I wanted to hear specific things that he has learned over the past decade, why his language was offensive. You know, having Carl Nassib, the first openly gay player, on the team. Maybe that changed his perspective about LGBTQ players.”
But instead, Gruden gave his two-line apology and was out the door. And while questions remain as to why Gruden was allowed to coach last Sunday despite the early leak of a racist email, there is shockingly little coming from the league regarding what they will do to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
No diversity and equity training announced for coaches. No public messages of support for Nassib and other gay players. No real explanations as to why what Gruden said was so wrong.
It’s laughable to think that Jon Gruden is the only high-level figure in the NFL who’s sent these kinds of emails; his are just the ones that happened to leak, and his career is in tatters as a result. Somewhere in boardrooms and group chats and private planes, the NFL’s old guard is breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn’t them caught this time.
In a statement this week, GLAAD’s chief communications officer Rich Ferraro said the emails are a stark reminder of how far the NFL still has to go.
“Even as the first out gay player is competing on the Raiders and receiving widespread support from fans and teammates, accountability is necessary to ensure that all athletes can compete without discrimination and harassment,” Ferraro said. “Gruden’s anti-LGBTQ and misogynistic emails, which went unchecked for years, are a disturbing reminder of the work that still needs to be done to improve inclusion and acceptance in sports at all levels.”
Hopefully, Gruden’s downfall is a wake-up call not only to the bigots, but to the people who employ them, laugh them off and put up with them.
Something needs to change in the NFL. Getting rid of Jon Gruden is just the start.
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