National Football League

Jon Gruden resigns as Las Vegas Raiders coach

Updated Oct. 12, 2021 12:04 a.m. ET

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Jon Gruden resigned as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night after a report detailed his use of racist, anti-gay and misogynistic language in emails over the course of several years.

Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reported Gruden’s resignation Monday evening, and Gruden later confirmed his resignation in a statement.

It was a rapid downfall for Gruden, who was in just the fourth year of a 10-year, $100 million contract signed with the Raiders in 2018.

The move comes shortly after The New York Times published a story revealing an extensive history of Gruden using such language in email exchanges with former Washington Football Team executive Bruce Allen, among others.

The emails emerged through an NFL investigation of workplace misconduct at the Washington Football Team. Roughly 650,000 emails were reviewed, including several from Gruden starting in 2010, when he worked as an NFL analyst for ESPN. Gruden and Allen have a long relationship, having worked together in Oakland and Tampa Bay. 

Assistant coach Rich Bisaccia is expected to serve as the Raiders' interim head coach, according to a report from ESPN.

According to The Times, Gruden used anti-gay slurs to criticize NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, saying he shouldn’t have pressured then-Los Angeles Rams coach Jeff Fisher to draft openly gay player Michael Sam. This year, Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib came out as gay and became the first openly gay player to appear in an NFL game.

Also in the emails, Gruden mocked the addition of female referees to the NFL and criticized the league for trying to reduce concussions. He was also critical of the NFL for accepting players protesting for racial justice during the national anthem, writing that one protesting player, Eric Reid, should be fired.  

"[Goodell] needs to hide in his concussion protocol tent," Gruden wrote.

Monday’s story came on the heels of a report in the Wall Street Journal — which was confirmed by The Times — that Gruden had used racist tropes to refer to DeMaurice Smith, the African-American director of the NFL Players Association.

Gruden apologized for the "insensitive remarks" about Smith, saying they were made in frustration over the 2011 lockout. He also said, "I don’t have a racist bone in my body."

Raiders owner Mark Davis announced Friday that he was "addressing the matter" with Gruden and said the content of the email regarding Smith was "disturbing and not what the Raiders stand for."

But the information that emerged Monday, including emails sent from 2011 to 2018, showed that Gruden's use of derogatory language was not an isolated incident.

In the wake of the new report, Davis went to the team facility to seek out Gruden, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, with the result that Gruden was out as Raiders coach.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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