Gruden was fired by the Las Vegas Raiders in October 2021 after it was revealed he had send numerous emails over the previous years that contained racist, sexist, anti-gay, and misogynistic language. The emails also revealed that he routinely took shots at his boss, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
As part of the blowback from the scandal, Gruden was removed from the Buccaneers’ Ring of Honor and his legacy was scrubbed from team history. Only memories from fans and players who were with the team back in 2002 remained of Gruden’s success in Tampa Bay.
The plot thickened in 2024 when at least four NFL owners accused high-ranking league officials, including commissioner Roger Goodell, of leaking the emails. Gruden accused the league of that right away, but it rang a little hollow considering he had just been burned and is guilty of using abhorrent language no matter how you slice the situation.
ESPN’s investigation into the leak revealed that Gruden at best caught a stray as part of the leak and at worst was being sacrificed as a way to protect Daniel Snyder. What he did was still wrong but attitudes have significantly softened in regards to how he’s being punished for what happened.
Gruden has been working at rehabilitating his reputation and time has seemingly healed part of the wound. That’s how the Tampa Bay Buccaneers feel, at least, as the team announced that Gruden will officially be reinstated into the Ring of Honor.
“I got a chance to get reconnected this season at a game with the Buccaneers,” Gruden said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “Some of my best memories in life were at Raymond James Stadium with the Bucs and it’s a great feeling and a great honor.”
The #Bucs are reinstating Jon Gruden to the team’s Ring of Honor. “I got a chance to get reconnected this season at a game with the Buccaneers,” Gruden told the Times. “Some of my best memories in life were at Raymond James Stadium with the Bucs and it’s a great feeling and a…
— Rick Stroud (@NFLSTROUD) February 27, 2025
It’s a decision that won’t please everyone, but it’s an indication that Gruden’s efforts to rehabilitate his image are working. He recently joined Barstool Sports and is introducing his unique brand of football to a new generation of fans, and he’s managed to stay out of trouble in the nearly half-decade since he was thrown in the jail of public opinion.
Nobody is going to defend what he said, and it remains a stain on his legacy that won’t ever wash out. It didn’t, however, destroy his legacy which is what his reinstatement into the Buccaneers’ Ring of Honor proves. It’s perhaps the first real step toward the NFL world welcoming Gruden back to the table, although he likely has more work to do around the league before that’s totally the case.
All that matters to Bucs fans, one way or another, is that he’s back in the Ring of Honor. Everyone will have a certain spin on how this outcome is interpreted as part of the Discourse, but it seems Gruden wasn’t so much expelled from Buccaneers’ history as he was given a short time out to think about what he did.
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