The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are cutting their ties with former head coach Jon Gruden. On Tuesday, the team announced they are removing Gruden from the Buccaneers Ring of Honor. This comes one day after Gruden resigned as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders following the release of offensive emails.
“The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have advocated for purposeful change in the areas of race relations, gender equality, diversity and inclusion for many years,” the team statement read, per NFL.com. “While we acknowledge Jon Gruden’s contributions on the field, his actions go against our core values as an organization. Therefore, he will no longer continue to be a member of the Buccaneers Ring of Honor.”
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The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times released stories on Gruden’s use of homophobic, racist and misogynistic language in emails dating back to as early as 2010. Gruden resigned on Monday evening after talking to Raiders owner Mark Davis. His resignation comes one day after the Raiders lost to the Chicago Bears, and the team is now 3-2 on the year.
“I’m not a racist,” Gruden said after the game, per the Associated Press. “I can’t tell you how sick I am. I apologize again to D Smith, but I feel good about who I am and what I’ve done my entire life. … I had no racial intention with those remarks at all. I’m not like that at all. I apologize. I don’t want to keep addressing it.”
“I’m not going to answer all these questions today,” Gruden continued. “I think I’ve addressed it already. I can’t remember a lot of the things that transpired 10 or 12 years ago, but I stand here in front of everybody apologizing. I know I don’t have an ounce of racism in me. I’m a guy that takes pride in leading people together, and I’ll continue to do that for the rest of my life.”
Gruden was the Buccaneers head coach from 2002-2008. He led the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl win in 2002, defeating the Raiders, a team he coach from 1998 to 2001. After spending time with ESPN, Gruden was hired to be the Raiders head coach in 2018, signing a 10-year, $100 million contract.
