Jon Gruden returned to the NFL — sort of.
The Saints have brought in the disgraced former coach who was ousted from the NFL in 2021 due to a series of leaked sexist and homophobic emails to help quarterback Derek Carr and the offensive coaching staff learn their new offense under Dennis Allen, according to NOLA.com.
Carr, a former Raider including when Gruden was the coach from 2018-21, signed a four-year, $150 million deal with the Saints this offseason.
New Orleans is using a version of the West Coast offense that stems from Sean Payton, but also Gruden — who coached with the longtime Saints coach in Philadelphia in 1997.
Gruden’s emails were leaked in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times in October 2021, triggering his resignation after his comments on female referees, player protests during the national anthem and a gay player getting drafted became public.
The emails, to former Washington president Bruce Allen, also included Gruden using an anti-gay slur to describe commissioner Roger Goodell and calling him a “clueless anti football p—y.”
Last summer in an appearance at the Little Rock Touchdown Club in Arkansas, Gruden called himself “a good person” and indicated he wanted to keep working in football.
“I’m ashamed about what has come about in these emails and I’ll make no excuses for it,” Gruden said. “It’s shameful. But I am a good person. I believe that. I go to church. I’ve been married for 31 years. I’ve got three great boys. I still love football. I’ve made some mistakes. But I don’t think anybody in here hasn’t. And I just ask for forgiveness and hopefully, I get another shot.”
Carr had some of the best numbers of his career under Gruden, so the appointment makes sense from a football perspective.
It does, though, ensure controversy — even if Gruden is not a full-time employee of the Saints, or anything close.
“It’s a new system, new words, [but] a lot of similarities to things I grew up on and believe in,” Carr told NOLA.com of the Saints’ offense. “It’s still a learning curve, but not as big a curve as it could be in a different system or a different offense.”