Jon Gruden is leaving the Las Vegas Raiders. The Raiders hired Gruden from ESPN back in January 2018, and did so on a 10-year, $100 million contract. But he came under fire Friday when Andrew Beaton of The Wall Street Journal published one of Gruden’s past emails that was found in a NFL probe, which saw Gruden say “Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin tires.” Gruden apologized for that and vowed he wasn’t a racist, but Monday saw ESPN’s Adam Schefter report that the league had sent the Raiders more “damaging” emails, and shortly thereafter, Ken Belson and Katherine Rosman published a detailed summary of those emails (which included homophobic slurs and misogynistic comments) in The New York Times. That piece went up at 8 p.m. Eastern, and just over an hour later, Gruden was no longer head coach of the Raiders.
Jon Gruden spoke with #Raiders owner Mark Davis a short time ago to inform Davis of his decision. It's official. Gruden is out in Las Vegas. https://t.co/zkzkVryyfe
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) October 12, 2021
Raiders owner Mark Davis arrived at the team’s facility a couple of hours ago and went to find Jon Gruden, per source. The two men met. And Gruden no longer will be the Raiders’ head coach.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 12, 2021
#Raiders source on Gruden, who told his staff that he's resigning:
"He already left."
— Adam Caplan (@caplannfl) October 12, 2021
Here’s how Schefter relayed that on ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast:
Adam Schefter with the breaking news on MNF that Jon Gruden is resigning as Raiders head coach. pic.twitter.com/OOv2oAVHMI
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 12, 2021
And here’s part of the on-air discussion of this from the MNF broadcast booth (Steve Levy, Brian Griese, and Louis Riddick):
The ESPN MNF booth reacts to the Jon Gruden news.
Louis Riddick: "As someone who played for him, it's highly, highly disappointing to say the least. I'll just leave it at that. That all this is coming out about a guy, who… I'm just shocked." pic.twitter.com/s9gvZJvzFc
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 12, 2021
Gruden (seen above during a Sept. 19 game) leaves the Raiders with a 22-31 mark overall, including a 3-2 record this season. GM Mike Mayock will reportedly be in charge of personnel decisions there now. No interim coach has yet been announced.
Update: Gruden released a statement, which was shown on Monday Night Football.
On MNF, Steve Levy reads Jon Gruden's statement about resigning as Las Vegas Raiders head coach.
Levy also shares Adam Schefter's report that Raiders assistant Rich Bisaccia is expected to serve as the interim head coach. pic.twitter.com/GlslhplCno
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 12, 2021
[Tom Pelissero on Twitter; photo from Philip G. Pavely/USA Today Sports]
