Should Jon Gruden 'get another shot' one year after emails leaked?
It has been almost a year since the Wall Street Journal unearthed Jon Gruden's emails and his NFL coaching career came to a very rapid end.
The former Las Vegas Raiders coach publicly addressed the matter this week at the Little Rock Touchdown Club in Arkansas -- the first time he has spoken on the matter since resigning amid the scandal. In his "honest" admission of guilt, Gruden also said that he hopes he gets another chance to coach again.
"I'm ashamed about what has come about in these emails, and I'll make no excuses for it," Gruden said. "It's shameful. But I am a good person. I believe that. I go to church. I've been married for 31 years. I've got three great boys. I still love football. I've made some mistakes. But I don't think anybody in here hasn't. And I just ask for forgiveness, and hopefully, I get another shot."
Gruden was set directly in the spotlight last October after WSJ uncovered emails in its investigation into the Washington Football Team that showed Gruden using racial slurs as well as homophobic and misogynistic language. He resigned a few days later when the New York Times followed up with their own reporting that included even more emails.
Not surprisingly, Gruden's "I'm a good person" comments have already caught plenty of fire. There are fans who think he deserves a second chance while others don't appear to think his argument holds water.
Of course, any kind of road to Gruden potentially coaching again would be a rocky one given his current standing with the league. Gruden filed a lawsuit against the NFL last year saying the league had already been in possession of the emails for months and leaked them on purpose to force him to resign. In May, a judge denied the NFL's motion to dismiss the case outright or take it to arbitration, which leaves it open to face a jury in the future.
It looks like if Gruden is somehow given another shot at coaching in the NFL, it isn't going to be for a while. And whether or not he deserves another shot appears to still very much be open for debate.
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