It looks like Jon Gruden is not the only one who is being dragged down by all those emails from the Washington Football Team.
The National Football League likely has zero reason to ever expose those 650,000 emails generated by the Washington Football Team investigation, but at this point, they may have to after emails produced in the Arizona dispute between Snyder and Bruce Allen has created a stir in the sports media world.
In July 2011, Allen and ESPN’s Adam Schefter corresponded regarding a story related to the efforts to conclude the lockout. Schefter was seen sending his drafted story to Allen for him to review and approve it so he could publish the next day.
“Please let me know if you see anything that should be added, changed, tweaked,” Schefter wrote. “Thanks, Mr. Editor, for that and the trust. Plan to file this to espn about 6 am. . . .”
It’s a relevant story because Allen has always stated he “maintained a low profile with respect to the media” and that he “never served as an anonymous source for any news or media reports.”
What you see below shows very differently.
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Several inflammatory emails by Jon Gruden were filed as exhibits in federal court by attorneys for Washington Football Team owner Daniel Snyder in mid-June, almost four months before they were leaked to two newspapers and led to Gruden’s resignation as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
The heavily redacted emails between Gruden and then-Redskins president Bruce Allen filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona include offensive language, chummy conversations with journalists — including an ESPN journalist referring to Allen as “Mr. Editor” while seeking feedback on an unpublished story he sent to Allen to review — and a barrage of complaints about the state of the NFL.
The emails are identical to some of those reported this week by the New York Times. That story detailed homophobic and misogynistic comments by Gruden in emails with Allen. A day earlier the Wall Street Journal reported Gruden used a racist trope in another email exchange.
The emails were filed as part of an effort by Snyder’s legal team to compel Allen to produce discovery in connection with a defamation lawsuit Snyder is pursuing in India against a media company called MEAWW for stories it published in July 2020.
ESPN has since provided a statement on Schefter’s email with Allen.
ESPN released the following statement in response to the correspondence: “Without sharing all the specifics of the reporter’s process for a story from 10 years ago during the NFL lockout, we believe that nothing is more important to Adam and ESPN than providing fans the most accurate, fair and complete story.”
Schefter has not spoken out about the situation as of yet.
