Jon Gruden, Bruce Allen’s Anti-Colin Kaepernick Emails Revealed in Dan Snyder Filing

AP Photo/Todd Kirkland, File

In the deluge of racist, sexist and anti-gay emails sent from former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden to former Washington Football Team executive Bruce Allen, Gruden and Allen also criticized Colin Kaepernick’s protests against police brutality.

“They suspend people for taking amino acids they should cut this f–k,” Gruden wrote in an email to Allen, per Henry Bushnell and Jason Owens of Yahoo Sports.

Allen responded, “I’ve expressed my OUTRAGE,” (emphasis his).

Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in the 2016 season in protest of police brutality and racial injustice. While the gesture has become somewhat commonplace a half-decade later, Kaepernick faced a firestorm of criticism at the time and became a political lightning rod.

No team has signed Kaepernick since he became a free agent after the 2016 season. His anthem protests are seen as the overwhelming root cause of his continued unemployment, and in 2019, he settled a grievance alleging the NFL and its owners colluded to keep him out of the league. 

Gruden resigned as Raiders coach this week after racist, sexist and anti-gay comments he made in emails over several years were leaked to the press. In a statement announcing his resignation, Gruden said he ” never meant to hurt anyone.”

The communications were uncovered as part of an NFL investigation into the Washington Football Team’s workplace. Allen was the team’s general manager from 2009 to 2019. Gruden was serving as the color commentator for Monday Night Football during the duration of the uncovered emails.

The NFLPA and several other groups have called on the NFL to release all 650,000 emails uncovered in the investigation. The NFL has thus far refused to do so, citing confidentiality agreements.