By Lester Williams Jr., Contributing writer
The sports industry in America attracts all kinds of people to watch and/or participate in sporting events. Unfortunately, this can include fans, players, and coaches that don’t always believe in demonstrating respect on and off the field.
Jon Gruden, previous head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Las Vegas Raiders, resigned from his position late this year after news of emails containing homophobic, misogynistic, and racist comments became public.
The emails were sent to Bruce Allen, a former team president for Washington Football, and displayed how Gruden refused to accept aspects of the sports industry, including openly gay players, people protesting the national anthem, and women working in positions like on-field officials.
Bleacherreport.com claimed that in one of these emails, Gruden referred to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell as a “f—-t and a clueless anti football p—y.”
Cnn.com also cited that Gruden called Michael Sam “a queer” after the player was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in 2014. Gruden also said that the league should not have pressured the team’s then coach to draft Sam.
As a result of a workplace misconduct investigation at the Washington Football Club, emails that Gruden had written from 2011 to 2018 resurfaced which destroyed both his career and image in the eyes of the public.
These emails not only led to Gruden losing his position as the head coach, but he also lost a lot of money on his remaining 10 year and 100-million-dollar contract with the Raiders made in 2018. His relationship with the Raiders was terminated and his position was later removed from the Raiders website.
The impact of Gruden’s resignation spread outside of the sports world and caught the attention of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and the founder of Turning Point USA, whose goal is to “identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government,” according to www.aaup.org
In response to Gruden’s actions, Kirk said that, “the real reason why they had to get rid of Jon Gruden is because he’s a white, Catholic, conservative male who speaks out, and they know that that cannot be supported and offered forgiveness.”
When commenting about recent events, Gruden acknowledged that it is for the best that he steps down as head coach because he will only be interfering with the Raiders’ goals if he stays. Gruden also claimed that he was sorry for his emails and that his intentions were not to harm anyone.
Gruden’s departure as a head coach will serve as an example for many years of what happens when people can’t adapt to a changing industry. Regardless if you like the current state of the sports industry or not, change is inevitable and people who work in the industry must respect changes like gender equality if they want to maintain their positions.
The idea of a sports coach demonstrating this level of close-minded behavior is unacceptable. For the sports industry to maintain a healthy and productive environment, everyone involved must demonstrate good sportsmanship.
Good sportsmanship is more than just players respecting each other. It is a concept that everyone involved in playing and/or watching a sport must learn which can demonstrated by having people following the rules of the sport and accepting failure without complaining,
If Gruden had learned how to show good sportsmanship and general respect, he would have understood the impact of his emails and realized that he needs to come to terms with how the sports industry is changing for the sake of maintaining his position in the industry and his legacy.
