NFL condemns ‘appalling’ racist comments by coach Jon Gruden in 2011 email

National Football League and Las Vegas Raiders condemn coach Jon Gruden after the Wall Street Journal unearthed an email he sent in 2011 in which he made a racist comment about manager DeMaurice Smith executive of the NFL Players Association.

“Jon Gruden’s email disparaging DeMaurice Smith is appalling, obnoxious and totally contrary to NFL values,” the NFL said in a statement to CBS News. “We condemn the statement and regret any harm its publication may inflict on Mr. Smith or on anyone else.”

Mark Davis, owner of the Raiders, called the email “disturbing.”

“The content of an email regarding Jon Gruden’s DeMaurice Smith when he worked for ESPN 10 years ago is disturbing and that’s not what the Raiders stand for,” he said. tweeted Friday. “We were first informed of the email late yesterday by a reporter and are reviewing it along with other material provided to us today by the NFL. We are discussing the matter with the coach Gruden and have no further comments at this time. “

According to the Wall Street Journal, Gruden wrote about Smith in an email to Bruce Allen, then president of the Washington NFL team, 10 years ago.

“Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin tires,” he writes, according to the Journal.

Gruden, who worked for ESPN at the time, told the Wall Street Journal he was frustrated after NFL coaches locked their players out because of a contract dispute that year, and Smith was helping the players negotiate. Gruden said he doesn’t trust the direction the players are heading in the negotiations. In the past, he said, he called the people he thinks of “rubber lips” and went “too far” in the email to Allen, according to the Journal.

“I’m so sorry,” Gruden said in an interview with the publication. “I was upset. I used a horrible way to explain it.”

“I don’t think he’s stupid. I don’t think he’s a liar,” Gruden told the Journal, referring to Smith.. “I don’t have a racial bone in my body, and I’ve proven that for 58 years.”

Smith also responded to the Wall Street Journal report.

“This isn’t the first racist comment I hear and it probably won’t be the last,” he said in a statement to CBS News. “It’s thick skinned work for someone with dark skin, as it always has been for a lot of people who look like me and work in American companies. You know, people sometimes say racist things in your back, just as you see people talking and writing about you using racist and lightly coded language. ”

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