It has been nearly 10 months since the NFL world last heard from Jon Gruden, with the ex-Las Vegas Raiders head coach staying mostly silent since filing a lawsuit against the NFL in November, 2021. But he just couldn’t help himself.
Gruden was a guest speaker at the “Little Rock Touchdown Club” this week. Though things were meant to stay purely x’s and o’s related, Gruden was given the opportunity to address the circumstances that lead to his resignation.
“I’m not going to say anything but honest things here, I’m ashamed about what has come about in these emails. And I’ll make no excuses for it. It’s shameful,” Gruden said. “But, I am a good person. I believe that. I go to church. I’ve been married for 31 years. I’ve got three great boys. I still love football. I’ve made some mistakes, but I don’t think anybody in here hasn’t. And I just ask for forgiveness, and hopefully I get another shot.”
An emotional Gruden asked for forgiveness and his job back, but went a step further by calling out the coverage of his ousting from Vegas and the aforementioned lawsuit.
“There’s a lot of misunderstanding out there right now,” Gruden said. “What you read, what you hear, what you watch on TV. Hell, I worked at ESPN for nine years. I worked hard at that job. I don’t even wanna watch the channel anymore. Because I don’t believe everything is true. And I know a lot of it is just trying to get people to watch.”
The chance Gruden ends back up in charge of an NFL team remains slim, with players slamming the former Super Bowl champion after his comments came to light. That makes his decision to speak out now, all the more confusing. This likely won’t be the end of the saga, with the fallout extending beyond just Gruden, but this chapter is certainly a weird one.
