Brent Musburger has an interesting theory on what happened with Jon Gruden that caused him to resign and be exiled out of the National Football League.
Gruden resigned as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders earlier this season after emails leaked showing Gruden using homophobic and misogynistic language, as well as a racist trope, in e-mails sent during his time in the broadcasting booth with ESPN.
Former college football announcer and current Las Vegas Raiders radio play-by-play man Brent Musburger thinks Gruden got hit by a paid assassin.
“As I told Coach, whoever took you out, Jon, that was a paid assassin,” Musburger told J.T. The Brick of the Las Vegas Sports Network. “That was one of the best hit jobs that I’ve ever been around. They didn’t go to their media goombahs. They didn’t leak this to Adam Schefter or one of those guys that breaks stories. They first went to the Wall Street Journal. And when Gruden was still coaching after that, then they dumped the rest of it on the New York Times. That was a professional hit job.”
Musburger believes the “hit” might’ve come from outside the league office.
“There was a second lawsuit involved, OK?” Musburger said. “Between the owner, [Daniel] Snyder of Washington, and a former General Manager. And that means that a lot of outside people had access to those emails that they were going through. So I think the hardest part for Gruden’s lawyers to prove is that somebody from the National Football League actually leaked that. Because if it is somebody from the NFL, shame on them. Because Mark Davis should have been told in the summer, when he had something to do about it.”
Last month, Gruden alleged in a lawsuit that the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell sought to destroy his career and reputation through a malicious and orchestrated campaign.
His emails were uncovered as part of a league investigation into workplace misconduct at the Washington Football Team.
The suit claims the NFL’s actions have led to Gruden suffering from “severe financial damages and harm to his career and reputation.”
