After racist and misogynistic emails leaked last year, Jon Gruden found himself having to step down from the Raiders after signing a 10-year deal worth $100 million. Gruden addressed the situation at the Little Rock Touchdown Club in Arkansas on Tuesday.
“I’m ashamed about what has come about in these emails, and I’ll make no excuses for it. It’s shameful,” Gruden said. “But I am a good person. I believe that. I go to church. I’ve been married for 31 years, I 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.”
Unfortunately for him, there is one organization that does not want him to get another shot.
In a statement provided to TMZ Sports on Tuesday, the National Organization of Women (NOW) said that Gruden should not be given another chance.
“Jon Gruden should not be reinstated by the NFL,” NOW officials said. “If hired back, this once again proves the NFL values misogyny, homophobia and racism.”
Gruden is currently suing the NFL, as he claims the NFL leaked the emails in order to get him out his job. The emails were leaked amid the league’s investigation on the Washington Commanders and their workplace culture.
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His agent, Bob LaMonte, also feels the league was out to get him.
“I can tell you right now that was a hit job,” LaMonte said last month.
“Why now, of all things, does that come out in an investigation that had already gone away?” LaMonte added. “And it was 10 years ago. And then why Jon and why the Raiders? He wasn’t even in the league at the time of those e-mails… You have 650,000 e-mails and his six were picked out.”
Gruden coached the Raiders in the AFC Championship Game in 2000. In his first year as the head coach with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he won Super Bowl XXXVII over his former team.
