John Gruden resigns and twitter was all over the place
On Monday night, news broke during the Monday night football game that head coach of the Las Vegas John Gruden resigned. This came in the wake of an article from the New York Times uncovering emails between Gruden and former president of The Washington Football Team Bruce Allen that included racially insensitive, misogynistic and homophobic language. The emails span several years and occurred while Gruden was employed by ESPN and stopped when he became a head coach in 2018.
In this scenario, the media is often a go-to source for a lot of people wanting to get news on the topic. Here is NFL Writer Jim Trotter’s thoughts on the situation.
https://twitter.com/JimTrotter_NFL/status/1448064545243779076?s=20
Media Professionals Reaction
People around the U.S. took to twitter to voice their opinion of the Gruden incident. The sports media professionals on twitter had a consistent tone in which they condemned Gruden’s actions. Many of the certified media accounts of these professionals either said what they had to say in a tweet, or retweeted one of their colleagues’ tweets or videos offering their take on the situation, but the tone was consistent. Their were some members of the media responding to people on twitter who disagreed with what they had to say and defending their take, such as NFL Analyst Ryan Clark below.
https://twitter.com/Realrclark25/status/1448371222752940037?s=20
People on twitter have their own agenda and some will likely respond when they feel as though someone has a different viewpoint than they do.
The Desire to Make Things Political
Some users on twitter took the opportunity to make political comments and chose to single out specific things he said about President Joe Biden. There were also tweets that aim to compare the Gruden emails with the Hunter Biden emails. Because of social media outlets like twitter, users are free to speak their mind. The social media landscape in 2021 has allowed anything to be turned into political propaganda if viewed from a certain perspective.
https://twitter.com/Nevergi95414627/status/1448400534675861506?s=20
https://twitter.com/TJGriggs13/status/1448407861504188421?s=20
https://twitter.com/exavierpope/status/1448244993907380225?s=20
Demand for accountability from NFL
The uncovered emails from the Washington Football Team are leading people to believe that Gruden can’t be the only one using this type of language around the NFL. Some are holding the NFL owners and commissioner accountable for allowing such language to be used and having no repercussions until now. Certain media professionals like Jemele Hill of The Atlantic, believe that the NFL is full of John Gruden’s.
https://twitter.com/TheAtlantic/status/1448407969012535297?s=20
The spectrum was very broad when it came to reactions on twitter. There were those demanding more action from the NFL and others who took the opportunity to show they were still bitter about the 2020 election. The great thing about twitter is it allows these sort of things to happen. regardless of personal opinion, people are able to find like minded individuals and comment and share whatever they want.
