EA has announced that it is removing American football coach Jon Gruden from Madden NFL 22 following his resignation over racist, misogynistic, and homophobic emails.
Gruden recently resigned from his position as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders due to the uncovering of the emails. The official EA Madden NFL Twitter account said in a statement yesterday (October 13) that “EA Sports is committed to taking action in maintaining a culture of inclusion and equity.”
“Due to the circumstances of Jon Gruden’s resignation, we are taking steps to remove him from Madden NFL 22,” the post continued. “We will replace him with a generic likeness via a title update in the coming weeks.”
— Madden NFL 22 (@EAMaddenNFL) October 13, 2021
Gruden resigned on October 11 after The New York Times published an article detailing these emails, which were sent between 2011 and 2018. The owner of the Raiders Mark David called them “disturbing and not what the Raiders stand for.”
The first email to come to light was from 2011, where Gruden referred to DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the NFL Players Association, using racist language.
A statement from Gruden was published on the official Raiders website announcing his resignation, it reads “I have resigned as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. I love the Raiders and do not want to be a distraction. Thank you to all the players, coaches, staff, and fans of Raider Nation. I’m sorry, I never meant to hurt anyone.”
In 2018 Gruden signed a ten-year deal with the Raiders to coach the team, but the surfacing of these emails cut that short.
In other news, recent previews for Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have revealed a plethora of changes – both good and bad – coming to the November 19 releases on Nintendo Switch.
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