NFLPA and Raiders investigate Jon Gruden regarding use of racist remark about DeMaurice Smith in 2011 email

The NFL and the Las Vegas Raiders are investigating the use of racist imagery in an email exchange by head coach Jon Gruden 10 years ago, while working as a broadcaster for ESPN. No discipline is imminent, according to team and league sources, and Gruden is expected to coach the team this weekend.

The email was revealed in the Wall Street Journal on Friday and was discovered by investigators investigating the toxic culture of the Washington football team, Gruden corresponding with Bruce Allen, then president of the Washington team , about NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, who is black. The Raiders just learned about the email on Friday, sources said, with the league also providing other emails for the team for review.

The league office is taking the matter seriously, as Friday’s statement suggests, but many factors involved in the discovery are unusual in many situations. Gruden wasn’t a team or league employee at the time, it came from a personal email account, and Gruden suggested he wasn’t using a racist trope in his comment on Smith. Sources said the Raiders did not immediately suggest that his employment status was in danger. Allen is a former Raiders and Buccaneers executive who worked closely with Gruden.

Some close to Commissioner Roger Goodell believe that ultimately a hefty fine and additional diversity and inclusion training will be ahead, with suspension less likely, due to the many extenuating circumstances. But they also suggested that there aren’t many situations like this, and that other evidence could necessarily lead to more intense punishment.

Raiders’ players have yet to speak much with reporters about the incident, and the team has yet to play a game since the remarks also became public. Gruden has a long history with the Raiders and is in his second stint with the organization, previously working under the late Al Davis and now his son, Mark.