Last night, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden officially Papa John’d himself out of leading the Las Vegas Raiders after the New York Times published a slew of homophobic, bigoted and misogynistic emails between NFL higher-ups and Tampa Bay business leaders.
Among the many awful emails, the worst are clearly between Gruden and Bruce Allen, the former president of the Washington Football Team. In those exchanges, Gruden referred to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, as a “faggot” and a “clueless anti football pussy.” He also ripped Goodell for pressuring former Rams head coach Jeff Fisher to draft “queers,” which is an apparent a reference to gay player Michael Sam.
In between topless photos of naked cheerleaders, Gruden also said NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith had “lips the size of Michelin tires.”
According to the Times, the controversial emails also include several Tampa Bay business leaders, including Hooters co-founder Ed Droste, Outback Bowl executive Jim McVay (who is one of the highest paid bowl executives in the nation), and PDQ founder Nick Reader.
The Times reports these emails went back as far as 2010.
From the Times:
Privately, Allen and Gruden appeared to have few boundaries in expressing homophobic and transphobic language. In one email from 2015 that includes Droste, McVay and others, Gruden crudely asked Allen to tell Bryan Glazer, whose family owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where Gruden coached until 2008, to perform oral sex on him. Allen said Glazer would “take you up on that offer.”
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In 2017, Droste shared with the group a sexist meme of a female referee to which Gruden replied, “Nice job roger.”
Droste, McVay, and Reader did not respond to requests for comment for the New York Times or Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
This is a developing story.
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