'Don't think it's enough' - NFL veteran demands further action following Jon Gruden email scandal
Jon Gruden's racist, homophobic, and misogynistic emails have caused outrage from current and former NFL players. Gruden resigned as Las Vegas Raiders head coach Monday night after the New York Times made his emails public.
Current Raiders players have given their opinion on the matter. So has former NFL veteran Ryan Russell.
Russell came out as bisexual in 2019 and was rightfully offended by the content of Gruden's emails. Russell played for the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2015 through 2017. He spoke on Tuesday with CNN about the scandal.
Jon Gruden’s offensive emails were selectively leaked from a trove of 650,000 emails collected by the NFL as part of its workplace misconduct inquiry of the Washington Football Team.
Where are the rest of the toxic emails, including any that were sent or received by Dan Snyder? https://t.co/qfoGL5gIbn
Ryan Russell speaks out on accountability after the Jon Gruden scandal
Russell made a memorable statement about the NFL as a whole needing accountability for these behaviors. Russell also believes Jon Gruden resigning as head coach isn't enough. The league needs to change its acceptance and tolerance of this kind of behavior. He said:
"I don't think it's enough, I think it's reactive of the investigation of what is happening. I think the next step that the league needs to take is being proactive in making sure that the coaches that they hire, the players that they draft, the organization that they form are being inclusive, are being supportive and are held to that standard not when things come to light but all the time. That's accountability, doing the right thing when no one is looking. The integrity level is what is being challenged here."
The biggest thing that broke Russell's heart was that nobody held Jon Gruden accountable. There were multiple people involved in the scandal who shared the same vulgar and hateful opinions as Gruden.
The fact that none of them were held accountable for the last ten years is inexcusable.
"Jon Gruden wasn't sending those emails to himself, there were other people that knew about it. There were other people that were involved across the league and this went unchecked for years so no, resigning is not accountability, it's not enough -- it's something reactive."
The fallout in this scandal is just beginning
Former Washington Football Team general manager and president Bruce Allen is also involved in the scandal. He sent emails back and forth with Gruden, all under the watch of team owner Daniel Snyder.
I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop in this Gruden fallout. Specifically, I want to know more about Bruce Allen, who I covered during his tenure in Tampa Bay. In all my years, one of the absolute worst people I’ve dealt with in my coverage of sports.
The fallout from this scandal could have a larger impact on the NFL than any other scandal previously. Allen and Snyder need to be held accountable for their actions.
Snyder has escaped punishment from scandals like a cat with nine lives. With Russell leading the charge on accountability, this scandal is the NFL's chance to show they won't stand for this type of intolerance anymore.