A day after a damning report about the front-office culture of Washington’s NFL team, a former player is calling out ex-coach Jay Gruden.
New Orleans Saints safety D.J. Swearinger took to Instagram and posted a text exchange between him and Jay Gruden that appears to show the former Washington head coach challenging him to a fight.
Swearinger played for Washington from 2017-18. He wrote that the exchange occurred after a 40-16 loss to the New York Giants over Swearinger’s comments in a postgame interview.
“We just didn’t execute, we just didn’t get the job done,” he said. “That’s the answer they want me to give.”
Swearinger wrote in his Instagram caption:
“He Wanted Me To Act Out But I Handled It Professionally & The Next Day He Told Me That Somebody Told Him That I Said Something About him in the interview but when he watched the interview he realized that person was lying & he actually agreed with everything I said. Soooo as a player how would you look [at] your coach for the rest of the season?! How can you motivate yourself to play for a guy who talks to you less than a man?!”
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One month after his release on Dec. 24, 2018, Swearinger wrote a message on Instagram about Gruden: “That coach y’all have will never win big cause it ain it him to coach discipline.”
Washington fired Gruden after an 0-5 start last season. The 53-year-old went 35-49-1 with one playoff appearance in five-plus seasons as the team’s head coach.
