The Bucs recently removed former head coach Jon Gruden from their Ring of Honor following details of his offensive emails being released to the public through a New York Times article.

Let’s start off by stating the obvious: Jon Gruden 100% needed to be removed from the Ring of Honor. This is not meant to be one of those right-wing think pieces where I go on and on about how Gruden was just using words, it was a long time ago, blah blah blah.

No, using the type of language and saying the things he said is inexcusable. He gets paid millions of dollars every year to tell a bunch of grown men what to do on a patch of grass so they can reach or prevent others from reaching a certain part of said grass.

So yeah, not that it should be tolerated for anyone to be saying these things, but he’s especially not going to be able to keep his job as a public figure in the incredibly bright spotlight of the NFL.

Which brings us to the Bucs and their removal of Gruden from their Ring of Honor. While it’s certainly necessary and the right move, it seems incredibly hypocritical for them to preach in their statement on this issue about their “core values as an organization.”

The Bucs still have Warren Sapp up there in that Ring, with all of his sexual harassment issues from his time at the NFL Network and his arrest on solicitation and assault charges, which led to his termination at the network.

Then we get into active players such as Richard Sherman and Antonio Brown. Sherman recently had an incident this past offseason where he was arrested for several charges, including one on suspicion of burglary domestic violence. Brown, before he was signed last season by the Bucs, faced sexual assault allegations by a former trainer, and had a multitude of other legal problems following the allegations becoming public, including felony assault and battery, burglary of a vehicle, misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor criminal mischief.

Hell they even drafted Jameis Winston no. 1 overall, with all of his extra baggage, from his own sexual assault allegations at FSU to the alleged groping of the Uber driver and everything in between.

Obviously the Bucs don’t really care about what type of people they employ, as long as they can play football real good.

I mean, I get it, if you put every NFL team under a microscope the league is filled with “problems,” but that still doesn’t give the Bucs a pass. That “well, it sucks everywhere” excuse shouldn’t be enough anymore, especially with how much revenue the Bucs bring in on a yearly basis.

But, of course, it’s all about PR, and this recent Jon Gruden removal may have been framed as the Bucs showing how “morally sound” of an organization they are, when in reality it’s all just posturing.

Plus, if you look at the comment section of a lot of the social media posts on this issue (or maybe even this article), you’ll see that many people feel the same way the Bucs do. As long as the on-field success is there, who cares what character issues players or coaches might have?

Oh, well. Go Bucs, right?

@CTBrantley12

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