Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden publicly has displayed a certain amount of defiance regarding the events that led to his resignation. One of his former players in Tampa Bay says that, privately, Gruden has expressed remorse.
“I had the opportunity during the bye week, I reached out, and was surprised he actually called me back, and had a good conversation,” 49ers G.M. John Lynch said Friday on KNBR, via 49ersWebZone.com. “He feels a tremendous amount of remorse, as he should. And that’s what you do; you reach out to people and say, ‘Hey, I’m thinking and praying for you.’ And I simply said, ‘Hey, when you’re ready, give me a call,’ and he did. . . . We shared some thoughts -- I’ll leave that private -- but he is extremely remorseful and understands he’s got to make up for that however he can. And I think those are his actions. And that’s the only thing he can do at this point.”
Lynch described his reaction to the content of the emails that made Gruden’s ongoing tenure with the Raiders untenable.
“I was surprised because I didn’t know that to be his heart,” Lynch said. “And those things were ... horrifying. That’s just not something I would think would come out of his mouth. And he didn’t just do it to one group of marginalized people; he did it to a whole host of them. . . . I think a lot of that [Buccaneers] team, that was a very close team. And a lot of those guys have reached out to him, trying to pick him up but also letting him know that we were all hurt by those comments because we didn’t expect that coming from him. So I’ll leave it at that, but it was terrible, and he’s paying a price. Lost his job, and is in a lonely place right now, and feeling the consequences of those actions.”
Once the emails became public, Gruden couldn’t continue as coach of the Raiders. Still, legitimate questions linger as to why and how the Gruden emails to former Washington executive Bruce Allen escaped from an otherwise secret trove of 650,000 emails. Someone targeted Gruden, and that part of it isn’t right. Hopefully, whoever did it will face the same consequences for their actions that Gruden is facing for his.