It turns out that what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay there.
When the Raiders take the field this weekend against the Bengals, Rich Bisaccia will be Las Vegas’ bench manager in the franchise’s first playoff appearance since 2016, not Jon Gruden.
Gruden’s unceremonious departure turned out to be one of the first major points of adversity for the Raiders team this year, ultimately ending a winning season and super wild-card weekend matchup with Cincinnati.
When Gruden signed his 10-year, $100 million deal to return on the sidelines of the Raiders, few thought it would end in emails. This is what happened:
What happened to Jon Gruden?
Jon Gruden’s tenure at Raiders came to an abrupt end in October, when homophobic, sexist, transphobic and offensive emails from him were discovered, leading to his resignation.
As detailed in a New York Times report, the emails were sent to former Washington football team president Bruce Allen between 2010 and 2018, the season Gruden returned to the Raiders on a mega-contract. In the emails, Gruden attacked Commissioner Roger Goodell, NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith and the league in general.
The Times reported that Gruden called the commissioner a “f—” and a “clueless anti-football p—.” Gruden also attacked Goodell for “pressuring” the Rams to draft player Michael Sam, the NFL’s first openly gay player, as well as lobbing prejudicial criticism of NFLPA president DeMaurice Smith.
Shortly after the emails were leaked, Gruden signed his resignation papers, but his history with the NFL didn’t end there. Not long after his ejection, Gruden filed a lawsuit against the NFL and Goodell, citing that the NFL essentially forced Gruden to resign after it appeared he would sit out the Raiders.
“The defendants’ treatment of Gruden was Soviet-style character assassination,” Gruden’s attorneys state in the lawsuit. “There was no warning and no process. The defendants withheld the emails for months until they were leaked to the national media in the middle of the Raiders season to cause maximum damage to Gruden.”
The NFL responded, calling the claims baseless and the league plans to “vigorously defend against these claims.”
Jon Gruden’s contract after resignation
In 2018, Gruden returned to the Raiders after signing a 10-year, $100 million deal, but it’s unclear how much of the remaining money he’ll see.
While Gruden’s resignation means he loses the rest of his contract money, reports indicated that Gruden and Las Vegas were working on a settlement package for the roughly $60 million remaining on the contract.
It’s unclear how much the Raiders and Gruden would ultimately agree to, if the two sides reached an agreement at all.