The Las Vegas Raiders have entered a new era of their franchise following the email scandal surrounding former head coach Jon Gruden. Gruden sent out horrifying emails to Washington Football Team’s Bruce Allen for several years that included racist, homophobic, and dangerous rhetoric. He resigned almost immediately upon this information going public.
He laid low for a little over a week, not saying anything outside of the statement he released alongside his resignation. Meanwhile, the Raiders handed the keys to interim head coach Rich Biassacia. Las Vegas put together a commanding win over the Denver Broncos to move to 4-2 on the season.
Now, Gruden has broken his silence in cryptic fashion, according to Liz Roscher of Yahoo Sports:
Gruden, however, offered some words last week, briefly speaking with a producer for HBO’s “Real Sports Podcast” about the scandal. HBO correspondent Andrea Kremer explained the interaction and relayed what Gruden said.
“Maggie Burbank, who produced the story that we just did on Mark Davis, she actually called Gruden and he picked up the phone, much to, I think, her surprise,” Kremer said via ProFootballTalk. “And he’s still in Las Vegas. … He says he’s letting the dust settle. He said, ‘People who know me know what I stand for for 58 years. I have a resume of 58 years.’ He said, ‘The truth will come out.’ It’s certainly cryptic.”
“The truth will come out” is undoubtedly an interesting thing to say about this situation. It’s hard to imagine what lies have been told, considering the only controversy was emails written by Gruden himself.
It’s not clear precisely what Gruden could be insinuating, but it does mean that his name will continue to pop up in headlines as he builds his case. Regardless, this should not affect the Raiders.
Bisaccia appears to have already rallied the team behind him, and they have a chance to move to 5-2 before their bye week when they take on the Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday. So their focus should remain entirely on that and not what Gruden has to say about his own email scandal.
Bisaccia grateful for head coaching experience on staff
While Bissacia is officially the head of the Raiders in Gruden’s absence, he sees things more as a team effort. This is why he’s grateful to have coaches like Tom Cable, Gus Bradley, and Rod Marinelli, who he can lean on.
“Yeah and then Richard Smith has been a defensive coordinator and Edgar Bennett has been an offensive coordinator and so I think that the unique thing about all those men from my perspective is they have no personal agenda,” Bisaccia said. “They have no ego. They understand it’s collective, and I think that’s what makes the players at ease a little bit to understand we are all really trying to do this thing together.”
