Jon Gruden. Talk about screwing the pooch. Let me help you out. Coach, sorry, you’re a racist. And a bigot. And kind of an ass. And that’s really too bad.
You screwed up twice. Once when you thought that kind of language was ok to use and the second time when you resigned. What? Yep. You shouldn’t have resigned. Resigning is quitting and you quit. You quit on the fans. You quit on football. You quit on the Raiders. But most of all you quit on yourself.
The talking heads are all losing their shit. Jon Gruden will never work in football again. He’ll never hold another job. Blah blah blah. Yet, I promise you, he hasn’t learned anything from what happened and those out there who are doing the exact same thing haven’t learned anything either.
Chuckie doesn’t think he’s a racist but he’s fine using racist terms and tropes. Uh, yeah, you are a racist. I’m sure he’s said things like “I don’t see color” or “I am friends with lots of black players”. No doubt some of you have said the same thing. That doesn’t make you not a racist.
Being not a racist is an active state. It’s not a state of mind.
When the first, second and third thing that comes to mind when you’re angry with someone is something other than the things he said in those emails, then you might not be a racist. When you think it’s alright in 2011 to put those things in an email, you are a racist. And Bruce Allen is right there with him.
Let’s go back to why he should not have resigned. The resignation was supposedly so he would no longer be a distraction. You know what? That’s your shit. You brought it to the party. Own it. You were wrong. Extremely wrong. What are the three parts to a proper apology?
What I did was wrong.
I feel badly that I hurt you.
How do I make this better?”
Randy Pausch
He got the first two parts right. How does he make it better?
Here’s where his type always screws up. They think that they can’t say these things out loud because the thought police will attack him. That’s the problem. The problem is that he thinks that in the first place. You’re mad at Goodell? It’s easy to be mad at that guy. “He’s a dumb sonofabitch. He’s ignorant. He’s spineless.” See how I insulted him without ever bringing race or bigotry into the conversation. If that’s where he had went with that, he’d not have a problem. If he had described DeMaurice Smith as hard headed, stubborn or even dumb as a fence post, so what? Gruden went with a racist trope. Shame on you Coach. That makes you a racist. Sorry, sometimes the truth hurts.
How does he make it better? He uses it as an educational moment. He does some training. He learns. He does some PSA’s. And he uses his white privilege to undo the damage he did. And maybe he undoes some other damage at the same time. Then he’s made it better.
Walking away is clueless. And spineless.