Clearly, the NFL wanted Jon Gruden out.
When they saw that Mark Davis wasn’t moving forward in disciplining his embattled coach, the league turned up the heat on Monday. After more controversial emails emerged, Gruden had no choice but to resign — Davis would have had to fire him if not. Really, this was only way Gruden would ever leave the Raiders: by undermining himself. Davis gave Gruden the keys to the franchise in 2018 and he lost them in a deluge of poor decisions.
There was no coming back from this for Gruden, who reportedly sent racist tropes and homophobic remarks (among other deeply disturbing opinions and offensive comments) in numerous emails over the course of eight years.