Jon Gruden Under Fire For Seemingly Racist Email

Jon Gruden is the next NFL head coach who will be forced to make an apology.

When the NFL was working on a new CBA with the NFLPA in 2011, the league tried to ratify some terms. But the players still voted against it.

During that time, Jon Gruden sent out and email about DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the NFL Players Association.

“Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin tires,” he wrote in the email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

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When the WSJ reached out to Jon Gruden about the email, he didn’t deny writing it. But also claimed that he had no recollection.

“I’m really sorry,” he said.

Jon Gruden would go on to say that he has uses the term “rubber lips” to describe people when he believes they’re lying. And he took it too far.

“I was upset,” Gruden said. “I used a horrible way of explaining it.”

“I don’t think he’s dumb. I don’t think he’s a liar,” Gruden said. “I don’t have a racial bone in my body, and I’ve proven that for 58 years.”

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Jon Gruden, head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, used a racist trope when describing the top NFL players' executive in a 2011 email https://t.co/FYHLHqrOsY

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 8, 2021

DeMaurice Smith released a statement on the Jon Gruden insult.

“This is not the first racist comment that I’ve heard and it probably will not be the last. This is a thick skin job for someone with dark skin, just like it always has been for many people who look like me and work in corporate America,” Smith said. “You know people are sometimes saying things behind your back that are racist just like you see people talk and write about you using thinly coded and racist language.”

“Racism like this comes from the fact that I’m at the same table as they are and they don’t think someone who looks like me belongs,” Smith said. “I’m sorry my family has to see something like this but I would rather they know. I will not let it define me.”

The NFL is believed to be looking into hitting Jon Gruden with some form of disciplinary action over his email.

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