The Glazer Family Has Every Right To Remove Gruden From The Ring Of Honor
On Tuesday, October 12th, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made the decision to remove former head coach Jon Gruden from the team’s Ring Of Honor after he became a focal point of a yearlong investigation by the NFL into the workplace misconduct of the Washington Football Team.
Amid the scandal, Gruden immediately resigned as the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders on October 11th citing he didn’t want to be a “distraction”. The distractions started just days prior when leaks of the New York Times report on the matter became the talk of the NFL.
It started with mentions of Gruden using a racist trope while expressing his disdain towards NFLPA Executive DeMaurice Smith. In the email sent to Bruce Allen who was the President of the Washington Football Team at the time, Gruden made a quip that lent itself to an old racist image of Black people.
“DumbMorris Smith has lips the size of Michellin tires”
His referring to DeMaurice Smith as “DumbMorris” may get glossed over as something that could’ve been said about anyone. As an isolated comment, there wouldn’t be anything remotely racist about it. At least, on the surface. But, seeing as how also mocked the appearance of Smith in a fashion that’s historically been of a racist nature, there’s no way to write it off so casually.
The stereotype of Black men as being dumb dates back to minstrel shows and the '“zip coon” character. A “zip coon” was a free Black person that was depicted as a dumb or a buffoon. The imagery that accompanied those characters is exactly what Gruden was referencing.
Now, many fellow BUCS fans won’t understand how others can somehow be offended by such words. Some, due to age. Others, due to willful ignorance. A Google search containing “Black People Big Lips” will bring up some relevant history that may help those folks out. However, plenty of others, including Gruden, are aware of the caricature of Black people. He’s old enough to have seen how much of a negative stereotype his words reinforced. And yet, he felt comfortable making the remarks anyways.
Caricature of Black men made popular by blackface performances and minstrel shows.
Coupled with his thoughts on Eric Reid, a prominent player who was key in the protesting of police brutality, needing to be fired, it’s not hard to see how Gruden’s thoughts and actions could be classified as racist or, at the very least, have racist tendencies.
Not only did Gruden’s language lend itself to racism, but, it also implied he was against both the inclusivity of women and gays in the NFL. A group message which featured a sexist meme of a female referee was discovered. Gruden also claimed that Roger Goodell coerced Jeff Fisher into drafting Michael Sam, the first openly gay athlete to be in the NFL Draft in 2014. Gruden called Goodell a “faggot” and said he shouldn’t have pressured Fisher to draft “queers”. Fisher, then head coach of the Rams, took to Twitter to swiftly strike down that claim.
As for the Glazers, their name came up when Gruden told Allen that Bryan Glazer could suck his d*ck. Apparently, it’s his go-to insult.
As someone who works in the film/tv industry in and around the Tampa area, this wasn’t the first time I’ve heard of or seen Gruden making this comment while shooting one of the multiple endorsements he had while working as an analyst for ESPN. Not just about Bryan either. But, the Family as a whole. He, seemingly, carried the grudge after being fired after the 2008 season.
Now, this would be enough to get any employee recognition or reward revoked by its employer. And unquestionably so.
But, there’s a group of people including BUCS fans that have made the claim of “cancel culture” being at play. Society is out to get people like Gruden. No shit!! People are trying to get rid of terrible people in relatively high positions who may have the influence to make life hard on people deserving of better.
There’s also an alarming number of those going so far as to say there was a “witch hunt” conspired by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to bury Gruden for some reason. Interestingly enough, that vernacular has been in heavy rotation by a strangely familiar group. A group that has a tendency to toss around whataboutisms. A group that likes to start off with “I don’t agree with what he said….” and continues with “but…….”.
The same crowd also keep repeating the “it was 10 years ago” false narrative. The oldest email reported was 10 years ago. The latest email was in 2018. From the same playbook, they’ll throw suggest the Glazer Family is making the move to appease a liberal crowd. Well, history shows the Glazers have big donators to the Republican Party for quite a while and even hosted a fundraiser for the last presidential candidate. So, another swing and a miss there.
It really makes you think about that Facebook leak that funnels information to a particular group. They end up repeating things they truly believe are original and well-researched.
In the wake of the announcement, there’s been a lot of questioning about the hypocrisy of the organization having someone like controversial DT Warren Sapp in the Ring Of Honor. Or signing someone like Antonio Brown and Richard Sherman.
Sherman’s case gets mentioned simply because his situation is labeled as a domestic violence charge which people wrongfully interpret as him putting his hands on his wife or girlfriend. That’s not the case. His wife spoke of his character during the 911 call to get him help on the night of the incident.
Brown came to the Team after a series of disturbing instances including a sexual assault case that was settled in civil court, a burglary and battery case in early 2020, and two weird stints with the Patriots and Raiders. Both of which ended abruptly due to the aforementioned assault case and beating Mike Mayock’s ass for some reason or another. Had Brown not been able to settle his legal issues in court, the Glazer Family most likely don’t agree to his signing which was the wish of QB Tom Brady.
For the record, I wasn’t a fan of the Brown signing. I still wish every catch and every touchdown he gets was going to Tyler Johnson or Chris Godwin.
Sapp has been a lightning rod since his playing days. He was as standoffish and as rude as can be. You can find countless stories of fans who don’t care for his persona off the field. Yet, none of the incidents he’s been involved in since his 2013 induction into the Ring Of Honor have been enough to have the Glazers take the honor away from him. Likely, because he didn’t do or say anything that offended them.
None of the above infractions or occurrences by Brown, Sapp, or Sherman weigh as heavily as having someone disrespect family and/or the family name.
In the midst of the Gruden controversy, Sapp did post an interesting take on his Twitter feed…
Bottom line…As owners of the Buccaneers, the Glazer Family has the right to shape the image of their organization exactly how they want it. And not honoring someone that has disparaged their family is their decision.
They gave him the honor. They took it back. Fair game.
Despite the statement the family put out about the removal implying it was based on principles of civility and equality, it’s more likely based on the disrespect of the family name. It’s a big “F*ck You Too” to a guy they gave an opportunity to.
It’s not business. It’s personal.
Relive Gruden’s Ring Of Honor Induction HERE
