Guest Column: Jim Rockford on the Death of Jon Gruden's Career
Guest Column: Jim Rockford on the Death of Jon Gruden’s Career
Editor’s Note: Mr. Rockford is a private detective based in Malibu, California. We here at Dubsism have retained Mr. Rockford at his standard rate of two hundred dollars per day plus expenses to be our special investigator on matters of crime and other general shadiness in the world of sports, then report back to us when needed.
If you would like to contact Mr. Rockford, at the tone, leave your…
Conservatives defend Jon Gruden to distract from the real cancel culture taking hold at schools across the country
Amanda Marcotte at Salon:
As soon as it was announced that Jon Gruden was stepping down from his role as the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, the right-wing punditry exploded in outrage over the only oppression they'll accept as legitimate: The supposed victimhood of a bigot held accountable for the ugly things he says.
The whole thing started when a review of alleged workplace misconduct at the Washington Football Team, ordered by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, turned up an email in which Gruden, then a television analyst, made fun of the head of the players' union, DeMaurice Smith. "Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin tires," Gruden wrote in an email to Bruce Allen, who was then the president of a team whose name was a flat-out racial slur. Soon a bevy of reports about gross stuff Gruden wrote in emails came out, including mocking female referees, snarling about the league hiring "queers," and grousing that players who protest racist police violence should be fired.
Gruden employed what writer Jamelle Bouie has mocked as the "racist bones" defense. The sheer amount of garbage that poured out of his keyboard, however, made it quite clear that Gruden could not continue to be in a high-level management position. Being the boss means being able to plausibly project the persona of respect for the people who work under you. Gruden can never do that again.
But, of course, in right-wing circles, Gruden's just another noble martyr sacrificed to the supposedly draconian demands of "cancel culture."
Conservative pundits downplayed the content of Gruden's writings as "off-color" or "an opinion that wasn't PC." Talk show host Charlie Kirk cast Gruden as the real victim of discrimination, insisting that he is targeted because he's "a white, Catholic, conservative male." Steven Crowder, another right-wing talker, declared, "nothing that I have read here is offensive or fireable." Unfortunately, this gambit got a lift from the euphemism-heavy coverage offered by the New York Times, which mostly avoided direct quotes in favor of vague descriptions, allowing the whiners a bit of wiggle room to pretend that the emails weren't so bad.
But really, all of this supposed concern for "free speech" and consequence-free bigotry is in clear bad faith. The same conservatives who are wringing their hands because a rich coach got an early retirement also back a national movement to suppress genuine free speech and vigorous, challenging discourse in education. It's just that the opinions, facts, and ideas they want to censor are ones that support an egalitarian ideology. In other words, the right isn't for free speech. They just want a world where it's safe for bigots — but not for anyone else.
For over a year now, the right has been up in arms over what amounts to a conspiracy theory about something they call "critical race theory" being taught in public schools, though it's hard to pin down what they seem to believe "critical race theory" even is. In reality, it's an academic theory that is largely taught in law schools and other graduate-level courses, not in public schools or even really much at the undergraduate level. But almost no one in the right-wing paranoia class uses the term correctly, instead treating it as a catch-all scare term to fear-monger to conservative white people who don't want their kids coming home with uncomfortable questions about the history of slavery or Jim Crow.
[...]
The "cancel culture" crybabies are just thin-skinned bullies. They want to abuse other people freely, but lose their minds over any pushback, no matter how substantive it is — or how gentle it is. The histrionics over Jon Gruden are just more of the same, an effort to distract from the fact that the real censors in American culture are mostly on the right.
The right-wing defenses and whataboutisms of Jon Gruden's racist, sexist, and homophobic emails reveal further proof that they hate facing accountability for their bigoted actions.
After being the subject of a racial trope by disgraced head coach Jon Gruden, NFL Players Association Director DeMaurice Smith wonders if...
After being the subject of a racial trope by disgraced head coach Jon Gruden, NFL Players Association Director DeMaurice Smith wonders if the leaked email signals a larger issue within the league.
Tom Brady irks NFL union leader with continued Buccaneers workouts
Tom Brady irks NFL union leader with continued Buccaneers workouts
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Father time is not the only thing Tom Brady is flipping the bird to, and the NFL Players Association head is not happy about it.
The 42-year-old quarterback is going against the advice of the NFLPA by continuing to hold group workouts with his new Buccaneers teammates, despite coronavirus cases spiking in Florida.
“Those practices are not in the best interest of player safety,” NFLPA…
John Riggins has done it all in the NFL and football: Hall of Fame, Super Bowl and MVP – spanning a long career. Recently, John and his wife, Lisa Marie, launched F.A.I.R. – Fairness for Athletes in Retirement – a new nonprofit advocating for the older retired players who made the game what it is today.
We’ve covered this over the last 10 years and things certainly haven’t really changed…
Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell rushes the ball against the Green Bay Packers in Pittsburgh on November 26, 2017. (USA Today Sports via Reuters / Charles LeClaire)
The scene in the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room sounds like nothing I have ever heard about or witnessed in professional sports. Their star running back, 26-year-old Le’Veon…
