Jon Gruden has spoken publicly for the primary time concerning the leaked emails that led to his departure as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
The 59-year-old resigned final October after the Wall Street Journal revealed emails from Gruden that contained racist, homophobic and misogynistic language. Gruden has filed a lawsuit towards the NFL saying he was singled out for blame over the incident.
The go well with alleges that the NFL had been in possession of the emails since June 2021 after an investigation into office situations at Washington’s soccer group. It additional alleges that there have been 650,000 emails collected throughout the investigation however Gruden’s have been the one ones made public. In May, a Nevada choose dominated in favour of Gruden, opening up the potential of a jury trial.
“I’m ashamed about what has come about in these emails, and I’ll make no excuses for it,” Gruden stated at the Little Rock Touchdown Club on Tuesday. “It’s shameful. But, I am a good person. I believe that. I go to church. I’ve been married for 31 years. I’ve got three great boys. I still love football. I’ve made some mistakes. But I don’t think anybody in here hasn’t. And I just ask for forgiveness and, hopefully, I get another shot.”
Gruden was applauded by the group on Tuesday night time throughout his speech, and was visibly emotional.
“I get a choked up, you know, because there’s a lot of misunderstanding out there right now,” he stated. “What you read, what you hear, what you watch on TV. Hell, I worked at ESPN for nine years. I worked hard at that job. I don’t even want to watch the channel anymore because I don’t believe everything is true. And I know a lot of it is just trying to get people to watch. But I think we’ve got to get back to reality.”
Gruden signed a $100m, 10 yr contract to coach the Raiders in 2018. He received the Super Bowl as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers within the 2002 season.
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