Tampa Bay Buccaneers remove Gruden from team’s ‘Ring of Honor’
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are removing Jon Gruden from the team’s “Ring of Honor” following his resignation from the Las Vegas Raiders.
“The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have advocated for purposeful change in the areas of race relations, gender equality, diversity and inclusion for many years,” the team said in a statement regarding the decision, CNN reported.
“While we acknowledge Jon Gruden’s contributions on the field, his actions go against our core values as an organization. Therefore, he will no longer continue to be a member of the Buccaneers Ring of Honor,” the team added.
Gruden, the coach who got the Buccaneers their first Superbowl win, resigned from his current team on Monday after emails unearthed years of racist, misogynistic and homophobic comments.
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported emails Gruden sent that used racial tropes to describe DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) and called NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a homophobic slur and a “clueless anti football p—-.”
The NFL has said they will not release all the emails that were involved in the investigation, while Smith says the union will be demanding the around 650,000 emails be made public.
The investigation began after allegations of workplace misconduct were made against the Washington Football team.
The Hill has reached out to the team for comment.
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