Getty Jon Gruden with Warren Sapp.
The Las Vegas Raiders were hit with a bombshell during the 2021 season when The Wall Street Journal reported that head coach Jon Gruden had said that NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith “has lips the size of Michelin tires” in an email to former Washington Commanders team president Bruce Allen. Gruden quickly found himself in the center of controversy and his job status was immediately in question. Raiders owner Mark Davis let the process play out until The New York Times reported on more emails from the coach that contained homophobic and misogynistic language.
In response to the original email, Smith said that the “email from Jon Gruden – and some of the reaction to it – confirms that the fight against racism, racist tropes and intolerance is not over.” Gruden resigned the following week and he’s not received any interest from NFL teams since. Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Raiders defensive lineman Warren Sapp played two seasons under the coach and won a Super Bowl with him.
Sapp pushed back against the notion that Gruden holds any racial biases and blasted Smith for piling on the coach. Warning: the quotes do contain language that could be offensive.
“That’s racist? If he walked in and said when I walk in my locker room ‘it looks like I got a bunch of DeMaurice Smith’s in there by the mouth’, that would be a racial trope,” Sapp said on “VladTV.” “But to say DeMaurice Smith got big lips? Yeah, DeMaurice Smith got big lips just like Barack Obama got big ears. We been calling Big-Lipped Johnny ‘Big Lipped Johnny’ for the last 40 years.
“I bet this is the first time in DeMaurice Smith’s life someone called him ‘big lipped’ and he said it was racist.”
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Sapp Says to Not Call Gruden a Racist
Former players like Tim Brown, Charles Woodson and Andre Rison have come out and stated that they don’t believe that Gruden truly harbors racist feelings. Sapp took it a step further and said definitively that the coach is not racist and specifically called out Smith further.
“You’re not going to call my head coach a racist,” Sapp said. “I sat in front of him for two years and I’m a child of the South. I was raised in Florida. There’s no way a fire-breathing racist would be in front of me or on my speed dial and we haven’t had a real discussion about ‘your tendencies to not see the black man on your level’. There’s no way Jon Gruden’s that.
“I’ll bet my life on it that’s the first time DeMaurice … ‘Big Lipped’ DeMaurice Smith said somebody called him ‘big lipped’ and it was racist.”
Gruden Still Likely Done in NFL
No matter how many players come out and defend Gruden, his time in the NFL is likely over. He’s engaged in a lawsuit with the league over the emails leaking to the media, which won’t make him popular among NFL owners. Sapp is a strong personality to have in his corner but he’ll only help the public perception of Gruden.
The NFL isn’t going to want anything to do with the coach if his lawsuit is successful.
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