Erik_in_Dayton

October 11th, 2021 at 9:42 PM ^

What Gruden said was backward and worthy of condemnation. The Raiders had no choice but to push him out. I don't particularly love the NYT digging through the emails of a private party.

EDIT: I didn't understand the context of the acquisition of the emails. Never mind!

Joined: 12/03/2008

MGoPoints: 59334

Harbaugh's Lef…

October 11th, 2021 at 9:50 PM ^

Looks like the NFL was examining 65k emails as part of a recent investigation that started into them looking into a workplace misconduct investigation into the WFT, the Wall Street Journal broke the story and the New York Times confirmed the emails so if you want to blame someone, blame the NFL, not the Times... actually better yet, don't blame the NFL, the Times or the WSJ, blame Gruden!

Joined: 08/22/2016

MGoPoints: 35889

Needs

October 11th, 2021 at 9:58 PM ^

Yeah, this is the result of a workplace sexual harassment/discrimination complaint against the WFT  (which I believe partially involved their cheerleading squad, photos of whom were in these emails) being investigated by the NFL. So it was perfectly legit for the NFL to be digging through these emails. Someone obviously decided to leak them to the NYT, but it’s not like some reporter was doing keyword searches in Gruden’s gmail. 

Joined: 08/05/2008

MGoPoints: 11638

BTB grad

October 11th, 2021 at 9:55 PM ^

I mean, Gruden was dumb enough to send these emails to not Allen’s personal email account, but his official team account. Kinda ceases to be emails between private parties at that point. So these emails came up in the NFL’s workplace misconduct investigation into the Washington Football Team. Gruden is not only a POS, but a really fucking dumb POS.

Joined: 12/01/2015

MGoPoints: 23619

MeanJoe07

October 11th, 2021 at 10:06 PM ^

Edit: I have now read the actual emails. Couldn't see the NYT article. I didn't realize this came out of another investigation and there were more emails than what was originally reported. Pretty bad stuff, but something seems off. I agree with the Raiders decision based on what I read, but I don't love the witchhunt cancel culture try to find dirt from decades ago stuff. Idk, if that's what going on this time, but I don't think the always virtuous NFL or NYT gives a shit about fighting racism. He got caught and he pissed off Goodell. You could probably fire half the league if you read every one's emails going back a decade or heard locker room talk from any point in time. I think we all know people talk shit and use crass and offensive language to sound tough and build that persona especially in football. Gruden was a human caricature of that. Calling someone a pussy or a f*g wasn't uncommon that long ago. I remember playing "smeer the queer" and no one batted an eye at the name. We've all seen that type of coach/player. Does it mean they go out and treat people poorly, and are truly racist or actually hate gay people? Maybe, but not necessarily.  It's wrong either way and unprofessional. It makes you an asshole for sure. I'll still get downvoted for not immediately agreeing with the folks here. Racism is bad. I get it.

 

 

Joined: 09/15/2013

MGoPoints: 73336

MeanJoe07

October 12th, 2021 at 12:53 AM ^

I only heard about the Michelin tire jab and calling Goodell a pussy. I might agree with the sentiment of the latter statement.  That alone, assuming no complaints from any players or anything else over his many years coaching would make firing him seem overkill in my opinion. But . . . obviously there's more that's come out.  I suppose they had to fire him. For the NFL it's probably less about fighting racism (they'll use it as a cover and I doubt they give a shit) probably more to do with him shitting on Roger Goodell. I'm sure everyone knew who Gruden was and the way he talks for a while now.  He just put it in writing and pissed off the wrong people. 

 

Joined: 09/15/2013

MGoPoints: 73336

TheCube

October 11th, 2021 at 10:14 PM ^

Bruh... This isn't a "racism is bad" witch hunt. It's a literal NFL investigation into sexual harassment by Dan Snyder and his peons over at WFT for which he's currently being sued by former cheerleaders. 

It also wouldn't surprise me if the NFL leaked a lot of the Gruden shit to get heat off themselves with regards to Snyder running a pseudo-prostitution ring. 

Joined: 12/19/2018

MGoPoints: 31597

NittanyFan

October 11th, 2021 at 11:53 PM ^

I "sort of" believe your conspiracy theory, but if is true, the NFL wouldn't leak the part where Gruden said Goodell pressured Jeff Fisher and the Rams into drafting Michael Sam.

I mean, that's a potentially verifiable fact.  Fisher could theoretically come out and say, yeah, that's true, Goodell did pressure us to draft him so it would make the league look good. 

I certainly could see Goodell doing that too.  "Come on guys, he's from your state (the Rams were still in STL at the time), it's only a 7th round draft pick.  You're kind of an irrelevant franchise anyway, you're like the Jaguars.  Do as I say ......."

Joined: 12/04/2012

MGoPoints: 43802

MeanJoe07

October 11th, 2021 at 10:52 PM ^

What exactly is wrong with feeling bad for racist folks?  Gruden just seems like a moron so maybe this doesn't apply, but I think it's okay to show some sympathy toward racists or anyone with a small perspective (specifically the ones who are victims of their circumstances). Everyone was born an innocent little baby until corrupted by the evil in the world. Yelling "you're a racist" to racists and expecting their heart to change isn't gonna have a positive effect. Unless the goal is just to join in and signal to people who already agree with you that racism is bad, sure then keep doing that, but that's easy and doesn't change anything for the better. Sure, Racists might not deserve our sympathy, but that's exactly why we should give it. Be an example of how humans should behave toward others.

 

Joined: 09/15/2013

MGoPoints: 73336