Jon Gruden has said little publicly since resigning as Las Vegas Raiders head coach earlier this month, after The New York Times exposed racist, misogynistic and anti-gay opinions he shared in emails to former Washington Football Team general manager Bruce Allen.
Gruden, however, offered some words last week, briefly speaking with a producer for HBO’s “Real Sports Podcast” about the scandal. HBO correspondent Andrea Kremer explained the interaction and relayed what Gruden said.
“Maggie Burbank, who produced the story that we just did on Mark Davis, she actually called Gruden and he picked up the phone, much to, I think, her surprise,” Kremer said via ProFootballTalk. “And he’s still in Las Vegas. … He says he’s letting the dust settle. He said, ‘People who know me know what I stand for for 58 years. I have a resume of 58 years.’ He said, ‘The truth will come out.’ It’s certainly cryptic.”
Cryptic is a good way to describe his comments, as it’s not immediately apparent what “truth” about the emails could be hidden or suppressed at this point.
However, it’s important to note that while The New York Times reviewed leaked emails between Allen and Gruden (as well as several other people), that’s just a small portion of the emails involved in the apparently independent investigation into harassment claims against the Washington Football Team. According to The Times, commissioner Roger Goodell ordered that 650,000 emails be reviewed as part of the investigation.
Congress gets involved
While we know in detail what Gruden, Allen and others wrote in their emails to each other, we have no idea what the rest of those emails contain. No written report on the findings of the Washington investigation was ever produced. All we really know is that Washington owner Daniel Snyder was fined $10 million and he turned over day-to-day operation of the franchise to his wife, Tanya.
Congress has taken an interest in this situation because it’s more than a little weird that an investigation into one team led to the ouster of the head coach of a different team, while the actual subject of the investigation got off with relatively little punishment and the public release of zero incriminating information.
In a letter to Goodell, two members of Congress requested “all documents and communications obtained in connection with the investigation,” and they also want to know why no written report of this massive and extensive investigation was created.
Could the “truth” Gruden mentioned be revealed as part of the congressional probe? Sure.
It’s also possible there’s no more truth to Gruden’s situation than what has already come out. His statement could be him grasping at straws after experiencing one of the most swift and complete falls in recent NFL history.
