Jon Gruden admits to sending email with “vulgar” remark about Roger Goodell

Officially, ESPN made no comment on Friday night regarding the email Jon Gruden sent while working for the Four-Letter Network. ESPN says a lot about the situation on Sunday, thanks to some official comments from their former employee.

Gruden admitted to Chris Mortensen of ESPN.com that one of the emails Gruden sent to former Washington executive Bruce Allen included a “vulgar description” of Commissioner Roger Goodell.

“I was in a bad state of mind at the time [in 2011], and I called Roger Goodell a [expletive] in one of those emails as well, ”Gruden told Mortensen on Friday evening, presumably with the understanding that he would become (as he did) a Sunday Splash! report. “They were preventing players and coaches from doing what they love with a lockout. There was also a lot of things reported publicly about the safety of the sport that I love. I was on a mission with football in high school [in the Tampa, Florida, area] during this time, and there were a lot of parents who were afraid to let their children play football. It just didn’t suit me.

Here’s the thing about Gruden. At some point, there is something that is not right for him. At all times, there is something that drives him crazy. He’s one of those guys who’s only happy if he’s upset about something. So it’s not like the lockdown has triggered a major break from her pre-existing tendency not to piss and moan on anything and everything.

So while the context as to why Gruden was mad about Goodell in 2011 is helpful, it’s ultimately irrelevant. He made a vulgar reference to the man whose name appears on every soccer ball, which for some reason was not disclosed to Andrew Beaton of the the Wall Street newspaper at the end of last week.

It would also be nice to know what Gruden actually said. ESPN surely could have given us a hint. We assume it is a four syllable word starting with “M” and ending with “-ucker”. Either way, the generic use of “expletive” does not clarify what Gruden said about Goodell.

Gruden added that he is aware of five to seven emails in total that are involved, and that (as expected) there are “harsh words” in some of the emails regarding team owners. Speculation will surely continue as to the content of others until they emerge.