On Sunday, most of America was aware of only one email containing firable statements from Jon Gruden. That is when Mike Tirico and Tony Dungy weighed in on someone they both referred to as a friend.
During that night’s edition of Football Night in America on NBC, both men advocated for forgiveness and giving Gruden a second chance.
“I’m not going to chalk everything up to racism. I think we should accept his apology and move on like he did with his team,” Tony Dungy said.
Mike Tirico pointed out that he was working alongside Jon Gruden during the time the coach wrote the racist email referencing the size of DeMaurice Smith’s lips. The two were partners on Monday Night Football for seven years. Tirico speculated that that likely means he knows Jon Gruden personally as well or better than anyone in the NFL.
“He said it right. He was ashamed by the comments in the email. The comments in the email are wrong,” Tirico said. “But, my experience kinda parallel Tim Brown, who played for Jon, a hall of fame wide receiver. He said he never experienced or saw anything that would say Jon was racist in any way. That was exactly the experience I had those seven years of traveling, three days on the road every week.”
At the time, there was some criticism for the two online. Fast forward 24 hours though, and America had seen emails from Gruden containing homophobic language, misogynist comments about female referees and statements against the NFL increasing its commitment to safety.
Jon Gruden resigned before the Monday Night Football matchup between the Colts and Ravens even kicked off. It seems that members of the sports media took to Twitter almost as quickly to condemn Dungy and Tirico for encouraging viewers to forgive Gruden.
It is hard to think NBC would feel the need to discipline Tirico or Dungy for their comments. It will be interesting to see if either address them or Gruden’s resignation during next Sunday’s show.
For the record, Tony Dungy did defend his statements in a thread on Twitter on Tuesday.
