The erasure of former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden is an incredible overreaction to his leaked offensive emails. But the hypocrisy that goes with it makes it even more jarring.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced that they would be removing Gruden from their Ring of Honor. Gruden coached the Buccaneers to their first Super Bowl victory in 2003 and has the most wins in team history. Meanwhile, EA Sports’s Madden video game franchise announced it would be removing Gruden from the current game in an update.
This would all be ridiculous regardless of the circumstances, especially because Madden is too lazy to replace Gruden with the team’s new coach, opting for a generic placeholder. But the Buccaneers and Madden now open themselves up to their own charges of hypocrisy.
The Buccaneers last year signed wide receiver Antonio Brown despite the fact that he had previously pleaded no contest to battery and burglary charges and had a pending lawsuit, which was eventually settled, from his former trainer accusing him of sexually assaulting her three times. Brown is still on the team.
The Buccaneers also signed cornerback Richard Sherman this year, just a few months removed from being charged with “driving under the influence, reckless endangerment of roadway workers, criminal trespass in the second degree (domestic violence designation), resisting arrest and malicious mischief in the third degree (domestic violence designation).”
Madden still includes players who have supported, defended, or promoted antisemite Louis Farrakhan, including DeSean Jackson, Marquise Goodwin, Malik Jackson, and Preston Smith. If you only want to look at the unemployed, Madden also includes Colin Kaepernick in the game despite his support for convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and his mourning of Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani.
How does that, in EA Sports’s words, “maintain a culture of inclusion and equity”? How do the Buccaneers square their signings to their commitment to “gender equality” and their “core values as an organization”?
This has nothing to do with values or principles. This is pandering, designed to earn praise for “doing the right thing” when no one was asking them to do anything at all. Gruden had already stepped down from his post with the Raiders. That should have been the end of this story.
The incessant need for corporations and institutions to erase people deemed culturally unacceptable is bizarre enough. But the fact that it is done with no rhyme or reason, while far more egregious offenders are ignored or even promoted, is absurd. The Buccaneers and EA Sports are not fixing or solving anything. They are exposing how morally directionless their operations are.
