As the Las Vegas Raiders begin life without Jon Gruden, the next order of business for owner Mark Davis will be figuring out the long-term direction of the franchise.
Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports that the Raiders owner “begrudgingly” parted ways with Gruden after the coach’s offensive emails were leaked last week. He initially did not want to punish Gruden at all, even though he had been made aware of the racist, sexist, and homophobic emails.
La Canfora says that Davis has turned his ire toward the league office and has mulled potential legal options against the NFL.
“Davis has told others that he believes influential figures within the league office were intent on forcing Gruden out through calculated media leaks of the emails that contained racist tropes and homophobic slurs.”
“He thinks the league office is out to get him,” a source who has spoken to Davis tells La Canfora. “He thinks it’s a hit job.”
The NFL has denied that they’ve leaked any emails.
La Canfora added that Davis was “very emotional” during the meeting with Gruden. He was not seeking to terminate the remainder of Gruden’s 10-year, $100 million contract for cause at the time he resigned. Davis continued to support Gruden despite the increasing levels of scrutiny and he has been “livid” over the nature in which the emails were made publicly available, La Canfora stated.
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The disgruntled Davis has also made it a point to say that no Washington executives or officials have lost their jobs as part of the investigation into the workplace environment under Dan Snyder.
Davis is upset with commissioner Roger Goodell and his league office and sources expect this situation to lead to some “fireworks at the upcoming NFL meetings in New York” later this month.
