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The MMQB NFL Podcast

The Gruden Emails, the Leak and What It Says About the NFL

The MMQB NFL Podcast

SI NFL

Football, Sports

3.9 • 944 Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Monday brought one of the most stunning developments the NFL has seen in recent years: Jon Gruden, once perceived as untouchable in Las Vegas, stepped down as head coach after a series of racist, misogynist and anti-LGBTQ emails were released to the New York Times.

Gruden’s language—and his presumption that he could use such words—is problematic. But it points to a larger cultural problem that exists in places across to the NFL, and raises the biggest question of all: Why hasn’t the NFL released any details regarding the investigation into the Washington franchise’s toxic workplace environment?

The impact of Gruden’s words and the consequences he is now facing, what’s next for a Raiders franchise in which he once held near absolute power, and what’s next for the league office that now might have no choice but to act.

Have a question for the show? Email themmqb@gmail.com or tweet at @GGramling_SI, @JennyVrentas or @ConorOrr

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Monday brought us one of the most stunning developments the NFL has seen in years.

0:09.0

The New York Times published a story about emails sent by John Gruden to, among others, then Washington franchise

0:16.4

President Bruce Allen over a seven-year span.

0:20.3

Those emails revealed three days after a Wall Street Journal piece revealed a racist email regarding Union Head de Morris Smith included stunningly misogynistic and anti-L-G-BtQ language. Hello, and well and I'm Connor Rohr. And we're going to talk about John Gruden, his emails, and the aftermath for him and for

0:46.8

the Raiders.

0:47.8

But we're actually going to start this show with the bigger picture and what is in a way really

0:52.1

at the heart of this scandal, one that goes beyond just one head coach.

0:55.8

That's the investigation into the Washington football team's toxic workplace environment and the fact that all these months later we have no

1:04.3

details on what happened. Yeah and Gary certainly there is plenty to discuss just

1:10.0

with Gruden himself and the content of his emails the fact that he felt comfortable in

1:16.1

engaging this kind in this kind of derogatory language with other people in the NFL sphere

1:25.0

the factors that go into encouraging and making people feel like they can engage

1:29.2

in that kind of language.

1:31.0

But the way in which these emails came to light was in conjunction with the NFL's

1:36.0

investigation into Washington's workplace culture and so because of that we can't

1:42.0

not ask well what happened to the rest of the information generated

1:46.8

from that investigation?

1:49.1

In July, the NFL announced that the investigation had concluded, but they said they didn't even

1:55.3

ask for a written report from investigator Beth Wilkinson that instead they asked for

2:00.1

simply a verbal report because the information was sensitive.

2:04.8

So we haven't seen any record of exactly what was uncovered during that investigation,

2:13.7

just the summary of it and that the NFL's head of investigations,

...

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