The Las Vegas Raiders will be without former coach Jon Gruden when the Denver Broncos host them Sunday. Gruden resigned Monday after media reported private emails of Gruden from 2011 to 2018 that included insensitive, offensive and damaging language while employed by ESPN.

The emails were specific to Black people, gay people, women, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and presidents Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, among others. The emails ranged from poking fun of the lips of the black leader of the players union to homophobic slurs to nude photos of women.

Gruden's resignation manifested amid a cacophonous outcry for his removal. Now that Gruden is gone, two questions surface for fans who are aware of how the league has handled similar instances of not only hate speech but criminal violence in the past.

One: How and why was Gruden so suddenly excommunicated when other football personnel with similar, or worse, speech and action still have jobs?

Two: Should the league afford him grace, like they have with convicted criminal Michael Vick, and others?

In the wake of the publication of the first email — Gruden's 2011 mocking of NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith — the coach said he didn't remember the email, though he acknowledged back in 2011 he was upset about the stalled labor talks and the resulting lockout.

"I went too far calling him the Michelin lips," Gruden said of the language in the email about Smith. "I never had a blade of racism in me ... (and I) used a terrible way to insult a guy."

On Monday, when the rest of the scandalous emails hit the internet, Gruden apologized in a resignation, within which he said he never meant to hurt anyone.

The coach failed in that regard. A lot of people are upset. And now not only is he banished from football but he's also erased from history. The franchise he led to a Super Bowl championship, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, removed him from their ring of honor. The move is in line with our modern culture's approach to offensive language encapsulated by the "hate has no home here" mantra.

The only thing is, the NFL has proven to be a place where "hate" — and crimes much worse than odious private emails — have found residency. The most flagrant example of the league's systemic racism was its race-norming practice when allocating medical settlement funds. The practice, which the league in June said it would discontinue, assumed Black players started out with lower cognitive functions than other players. Critics alleged it meant the league's former Black players had a more difficult time proving cognitive decline from injuries.

There are many other examples of the league harboring hypocritical hate, including employing several people who have not only spoken ignorantly but acted criminally. The most jarring example of an adult employed by the NFL despite criminal allegations is a player Broncos fans know well: Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill.

The history of Hill's domestic violence and alleged child abuse ultimately didn't result in a suspension by the NFL. That was even after a 4-month investigation in 2019 uncovered audio of Hill telling his girlfriend

"You need to be terrified of me, too" after she said Hill's son was scared of his disciplinary tactics. The league ultimately said it couldn't conclude Hill violated the NFL's personal conduct policy. Since, he's starred in 32 games for one of the league's premier brands, helping to lead them to a Super Bowl win in 2020.

Hill's case juxtaposed to Gruden's further illustrates the NFL's inconsistency. It makes reasonable people — people who agree Gruden's language was abhorrent — ponder if the league is making an example of the coach to atone for their handling of situations like race norming.

Time will tell if Gruden gets grace like Hill, Vick and others. For now, the pertinent question is one as old as time: do actions actually speak louder than words? Because, if they do, the support for Gruden from Black players like Raiders running back Josh Jacobs suggests Gruden should be afforded a second chance.

"I have been around this guy for three years now, and I have never felt a certain type of way about him," Jacobs said.

"He's never rubbed me a certain type of way. What he said is what he said, at the end of the day. But I definitely trust him. It was 10 years ago. People grow."

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