The NFL sent the Las Vegas Raiders additional Jon Gruden emails to review, on top of the one that surfaced last week and others Gruden recently confirmed to ESPN, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday.
The NFL is actively monitoring the situation and waiting to see how the team will handle the matter, sources around the league said.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that one of Gruden’s emails from 2011 — which came to light during the NFL’s investigation of workplace misconduct with the Washington Football Team — included a racist comment in reference to NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith. Gruden, who was employed by ESPN at the time as the lead analyst for Monday Night Football, said Friday that he is “ashamed I insulted De Smith” and added that he “never had a racial thought” when he sent the email.
Gruden estimated he was aware of five to seven emails that were flagged by the league, including one in which he disparaged NFL commissioner Roger Goodell with a vulgar description and others that included harsh words for a handful of team owners who were involved in the 2011 labor disagreement that led to a lockout, he told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen.
Gruden told reporters Sunday he not had any contact with the NFL about the emails.
“All I can say is I’m not a racist,” Gruden reiterated. “I can’t tell you how sick I am. I apologize again to De Smith. But I feel good about who I am, what I’ve done my entire life. And I apologize for the insensitive remarks I had. I had no racial intentions with those remarks at all. … I’m not like that at all. But I apologize.”
Gruden and his players spoke about the emails Sunday in the wake of the Raiders’ 20-9 loss to the Bears at Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas’ second straight lackluster defeat after opening 3-0.
During his weekly media availability on Monday, Gruden was asked what he has learned since the Wall Street Journal story broke on Friday
“I’ve learned a lot and again I’m not going to rehash the event again,” Gruden said. “I think I feel very good about the things I have learned. I also feel really good about what I stand for, as I said yesterday, and I’ll be happy to talk about football, but I’ll just leave it at that.”
Raiders owner Mark Davis, meanwhile, has stood by the statement he released on Friday afternoon, calling the content of Gruden’s email to Smith “disturbing” and “not what the Raiders stand for.”