Jon Gruden is now out as the Las Vegas Raiders head coach. The harsh reality of the NFL, and its warped view of accountability, explains why.
Gruden’s offensive emails from a decade ago were not relevant to much of anything, other than the fact some were sent to former Washington Football Team General Manager Bruce Allen. The emails sent to Allen were only discovered because of an investigation into the team’s workplace culture, which is in itself an investigation of the owner, Dan Snyder.
Owners run the NFL. As inherently unfair as it may be that Gruden (and the Raiders) have suffered more from an investigation into Snyder than Snyder ever will, this is how the NFL has always worked. Accountability is typically only for those who are expendable. Owners typically don’t fall into that category.
Gruden was a coach who could have been out of a job by the end of the season. He was not a coach with sustained success who could have outlived the controversy by taking a suspension and riding it out. Nor was he a star player, pivotal to the Raiders’ (or the league’s) star power. It doesn’t matter that he had no meaningful connection to the investigation into Washington. He got caught up in it, and he would have become a distraction.
This is why some players can survive far worse scandals while others cannot. Despite his past documented domestic violence issues, Kansas City Chiefs star Tyreek Hill escaped a domestic violence investigation with no suspension. Former Carolina Panther Greg Hardy did as well, signing for a single season with the Dallas Cowboys before it became apparent his talent had faded, and he had become even more of a distraction.
Contrast that with Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice. Caught on video punching his wife, Rice never played in the NFL again. Other players had been caught on video punching or kicking women (such as Joe Mixon and Kareem Hunt), but Rice was an aging running back already in decline.
So maybe you see the pattern. This is how accountability works in the NFL.
To emphasize this point, the league finished its investigation into Washington Football Team in the summer. What was the conclusion about Snyder and Washington’s workplace? We aren’t entirely sure.
As Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer notes, the specifics from the 11-month investigation have not been made public. Yet somehow, Gruden’s emails became public, and he was shortly on his way out.
This is not to excuse Gruden’s language or say that he shouldn’t have stepped down. It is just a reality that, if he were a more successful coach or even an unsuccessful league owner, he would have survived this controversy because the NFL’s idea of accountability has always been warped.
