[ad_1]
Brent Musburger is floating a new theory about the Jon Gruden fallout.
Gruden, who resigned as the head coach of the Raiders in October following a bombshell New York Times report that revealed he had used homophobic and misogynistic language in previous emails, is currently suing the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell, accusing the league of “selectively leaking” the damning messages. Musburger, the Raiders’ radio voice, recently relayed his thoughts on the situation to Gruden.
“As I told Coach, whoever took you out, Jon, that was a paid assassin,” Musburger said to J.T. The Brick of the Las Vegas Sports Network, according to Pro Football Talk.
“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 also speculated about the origins of the said “hit,” suggesting it may have come from a place outside of the NFL umbrella.
“There was a second lawsuit involved, OK?” Musburger said. “Between the owner, [Daniel] Snyder of Washington, and a former general manager (Scot McCloughan). 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.”
The emails in question — which had been sent to former Washington Football Team exec, Bruce Allen, when Gruden worked as an ESPN announcer — had been part of an NFL investigation into the organization’s workplace environment. Gruden’s attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner, addressed the messages in a statement about his client’s lawsuit against the league.
“The complaint alleges that the defendants selectively leaked Gruden’s private correspondence to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times in order to harm Gruden’s reputation and force him out of his job,” Hosmer-Henner stated at the time of the filing. “There is no explanation or justification for why Gruden’s emails were the only ones made public out of the 650,000 emails collected in the NFL’s investigation of the Washington Football Team or for why the emails were held for months before being released in the middle of the Raiders’ season.”
The lawsuit also alleges, “Defendants held the emails for months until they were leaked to the national media in the middle of the Raiders’ season in order to cause maximum damage to Gruden.”
The NFL has denied Gruden’s claims and have repeatedly said the email leaks did not come from them.
“The allegations are entirely meritless and the NFL will vigorously defend against these claims,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement.
The Raiders, meanwhile, are now being coached by former special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia. They improved to 6-5 on the season last Thursday, after defeating the Cowboys in overtime on Thanksgiving.
[ad_2]