Jon Gruden pulled a completely tone deaf COVID-19 prank
By John Buhler
Nobody read the room worse than Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden.
We get that everyone is taking the coronavirus seriously, but what the hell, Jon Gruden?
There are millions of ways for someone to get the point across, but Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden failed his organization and his entire fan base with this crap he tried to pull off on a Zoom call with his players. It doesn’t matter that it was over Zoom, man, read the room, dammit. How on planet earth did you think this was okay? Just…oh my, god…
One more on the #Raiders from Inside Training Camp on @nflnetwork: Jon Gruden's attempt to "crush" COVID-19 included assistant Rich Bisaccia tricking the players into thinking Gruden had coronavirus. But it wasn't a mean-spirited prank. There was a serious message behind it. pic.twitter.com/I832Zy5g2a
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) August 5, 2020
The head coach of the Silver and Black had his special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia act as the interim head coach because Gruden faked coming down with COVID-19. Gruden didn’t, as this was a test, but this isn’t an elementary school fire drill. We’re in the midst of a global pandemic and you can’t be this blatantly tone-deaf. Someone on that call has been impacted by the virus. Get a clue.
Learn from the Jon Gruden’s error, don’t do what the Las Vegas Raiders did.
Even though this shenanigan of whatever the hell this stunt was happened before Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson contracted the virus, this isn’t the time and place for an NFL head football coach to go full-blown jock meathead. Do better than this, man. I tell you what, man. If you pulled this crap off with a well-run organization, you’d be collecting unemployment Friday.
If you see an armada of Raiders players jump off the 2020 ship and opt out, could you really blame them? When your head coach is essentially crying wolf with an issue as serious as this, you’ve set yourself up for failure. Don’t be surprised if players bail on you in the 11th hour, in your time of darkness, in your time of need. This isn’t leadership, this is embarrassing.
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Mike Mayock has drafted brilliantly the last two years. So what good is that going to do if the guy trusted to coach them can’t even commit to excellence on a flipping Zoom call? While there is nothing wrong about kidding with your staff and players, this is not a laughing matter. This has been the hardest year of all of our lives and faking a positive test to prove a point is shameful.
Gruden owes his staff, players, the NFL and Raider Nation an apology for being a total idiot.