Sports Media Speaker Series Examines the Ramification of the Jon Gruden Email Scandal  

In the latest edition of Seton Hall's ongoing Sports Media Speaker Series, the College of Communication and the Arts held a panel discussion called The Gruden Effect: Examining The Larger Issues. This discussion, hosted by Professional in Residence B.J. Schecter and former ESPN journalist Bob Ley ('76), talked about the story of the offensive emails from Gruden that were released to the public. They used this news story to discuss the ramifications of this incident, not only in the National Football League, but in sports in general and across American society.

As the emails of former Las Vegas Raiders coach leaked on social media, the reaction from the public was massive. The derogatory language from someone who had such power as a coach and as a former analyst on ESPN was frowned upon. As the public talked about this, some of the best in the sports media industry came together to talk about the situation and discuss the fallout of this story.

On October 18, Ley and Schecter were joined with Charles Grantham, director of the Center for Sport Management at Seton Hall’s Stillman School of Business and former executive director of the NBA Players Association; George Atallah, assistant executive director of external affairs for the NFL Players Association; Judy Battista, reporter for NFL Media; and Bomani Jones, multi-platform host and commentator at ESPN. This panel, along with participation from students and audience, helped drive the discussion about the issues.

Various emotions of frustration and disappointment were very eminent from this discussion, but there were also feelings of hope and optimism in the future. Grantham and Attalah expressed emotions of expectedness when these emails initially came out.

"Nothing new is really happening here but what I see on the horizon, however, is that time and time again they prove that the organizational intuition of football or baseball or hockey [needs] some adjustments and some changes," mentioned Grantham when discussing his response to the language of the emails that were released. View his full reaction in this clip.

They were only a select few emails that were released from the investigation that the NFL ran on the Washington Football Team. Around 650,000 emails were obtained by the NFL and some journalists, including Battista, are curious to see what other things can be uncovered from these emails. "I wonder what else is in there since it’s hard to image that out of 650,000 [emails] that the only bad ones are the ones that we have already seen," she added to the discussion.

The biggest showing of emotion came from Atallah, who had to interrupt Ley to express his deep frustration with the delayed action of the NFL.

While negative emotions were displayed throughout the event, there was a positive outlook toward the end, when Jones talked about how media can promote institutions to change, drawing from his own personal experience. "I believe we in media have some measure of power on these things and the ability to sway public opinion and measure pressure that you get up top," noted Jones.

Throughout the event, Ley and Schecter also shared their thoughts on the Jon Gruden matter and elaborate on how individuals can use this news as a lesson.

If you missed The Gruden Effect: Examining The Larger Issues, watch the video above and other past events on the Sports Media Speaker Series page.

Categories: Arts and Culture