NFL 2021/2022

The coach, who signed a 10-year, $100 million ($A136m) deal with the Raiders to return to the NFL in 2018, reportedly called for Eric Reid, a key character in the national anthem protests, to be fired. On top of that, he reportedly questioned the league’s concussion protocols, and used offensive language to describe owners, coaches, and journalists in the league.

According to The New York Times, “Gruden exchanged emails with Allen and other men that included photos of women wearing only bikini bottoms, including one photo of two Washington team cheerleaders.”

Already under investigation by the NFL for a 2011 email in which he used a racial trope to criticize NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, Gruden admitted Friday that he also used profane language to describe NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. According to The New York Times, however, Gruden's questionable conduct extended far beyond those comments, with Ken Belson and Katherine Rosman reporting Monday that the 58-year-old "casually and frequently unleashed misogynistic and homophobic language" to denigrate NFL peers from 2010 all the way to 2018, when he rejoined the Raiders.

La Canfora confirmed the contents of the reported emails. Gruden's initial comments regarding Smith, which first surfaced in a Wall Street Journal report and stemmed from a separate workplace investigation into Washington Football Team, are just one piece of a bigger issue at hand. The league was "waiting on the Raiders to take action," per La Canfora, and was prepared to "step in" if Las Vegas did not address the situation beyond public denouncement of Gruden's emails.