In case you are not aware of the John Gruden story, the tweet below has a summary of why he was fired from his job as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
It was first revealed the Gruden emailed racist insults about the head of the players’ union and then the above was released. I think the Raiders did the right thing in asking him to leave. You can’t have someone who feels free to email this type of stuff in a leadership position. I understand why past teams and other businesses are now distancing themselves from Gruden. Why would anyone want to have a person like this associated with them? He got what he deserved.
The response, however, has not been overwhelmingly in favor of the decision. Here are some of the talking points of the other side and my response to them.
It was ten years ago
Ten years ago, Gruden was a 48-year-old man. This is not the same as, say, the Josh Hader situation, where he was 17 when he tweeted terrible things and it was brought up when he was 24. Teenage boys are old enough to know better, but also have years of maturing ahead of them. If you are still doing this at 48 you are just a terrible person. Also, some of the emails were from 2018.
You would find this in anyone’s personal email
This was already being said and then was said more in response to the video below of Charger’s coach Brandon Staley. It’s a good response, but people are tearing him apart for being a good person. Some people say he probably deleted all of his old emails before this. If you assume everyone is saying racist, misogynistic, and homophobic stuff in their emails, you might want to do two things: reconsider who you are emailing and rethink what you are saying in your emails.
I’m far from a perfect person, but I can say I’m 100% sure that you could leak all of my personal and professional correspondence and you would not find racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language. Mostly, you would find a tendency to share dumb jokes and comics and a high rate of typos.
What about the players who abuse women and children?
Ah, What-aboutism, the favorite game of apologists everywhere. The fact that the NFL has a terrible record when it comes to dealing with abusers does not excuse Gruden. Yes, the NFL should be better about domestic violence. You can read what I said when it looked like they were going to go easy on Ray Rice here. The NFL needs to be consistent with a policy that abusers are not welcome in the league. You can’t have stadiums all over the league decked out in pink for women’s health while there are players on the field who abuse women. It’s the very worst form of hypocrisy. I wholeheartedly agree that something needs to change. That has nothing to do with the Gruden case.
I’m generalizing here, but I’m sure most of the people trying these arguments in support of Gruden are people who use racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language and are uneasy at the thought that it can come with consequences.
The World's Common Tater 
You defend all your talking points very well. And I agree with everything you said. I never heard of this guy before (so that tells you something), but I did think when hearing the initial story, “But this was 10 years ago.” But the fact that he was 48 and not 17 is huge as well as the fact that some of the comments were made in 2018. I’m not sure about your last paragraph which as you state is a generalization. You may be right, but I stay away from generalizations as there are so many logical flaws in doing so. Some people may not agree with the statements but think “it’s just talk”, his actions speak differently. I’m not defending him! Just saying, there could be more than one explanation of why some are on his his side. Good post!
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Yeah I prbably should have stayed away form the generalization, but i do think if you really believe everyone has emails like that it probably means you have them.
Thanks for reading
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Oh yea, what you said about that part (everyone has emails like that) make me chuckle. And it’s another generalization by them.
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I’m not saying He shouldn’t have been let go. However, I think that a lot of people say a lot of really crappy things a lot of the time. And in a world where things can be doctored…I think we need so much proof before we condemn. One of my readers says that her son and his friends tell racist jokes all the time (they are persons of color and the jokes are against their own race.) what’s the context of the this? Yes. I think he needed to be let go. Though we ant let physical abuse slide if we are going to condemn verbal abuse. What if Biden were to pull a Jimmy Carter and say that he has lusted in his heart…
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I don’t think he should be in a leadership position. I wonder who would put that stuff in writing? I can’t imagine what the workplace environment and culture would be like. That said, I’m uncomfortable with the leaking of the emails. That also bothers me.
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I think they should leak all the emails. I think they leaked his to throw him under the bus hoping to appease people. I’m sure there are worse they aren’t sharing. If you send emails on company email you relinquish the right to those as private.
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I agree with you that they should make all the emails public. I felt he was being targeted too. Absolutely company emails are not private.
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