EA Will Scrub Jon Gruden From 'Madden 2022' After Email Scandal Forced Him To Resign From The NFL

Jon Gruden, former NFL coaching and commentating wunderkind, will not be in Madden 2022.

The disgraced former Las Vegas Raiders head coach recently resigned from the NFL after the New York Times released a series of emails that uncovered a slew of racist, homophobic and sexist statements about the league's brass and some of its players.

On Monday, the Times posted a scathing report revealing that as a part of the NFL's conduct investigation into a separate matter, the league discovered Gruden had written disparaging comments about the emergence of female referees, used homophobic slurs to denigrate commissioner Roger Goodell, suggested Goodell pressured Jeff Fisher into drafting Michael Sam, who is openly gay, criticized the league for trying to reduce concussions, and slammed NFL players for kneeling for the National Anthem. Gruden resigned from the NFL on Wednesday.

All of this was enough for EA to erase Gruden from their game. An update patch replacing Gruden with a "generic likeness" will be out in the coming weeks.

pic.twitter.com/KSKsJ1iVXU

— Madden NFL 22 (@EAMaddenNFL) October 13, 2021

As one might expect, the decision hit the discourse sweet spot between sports, gaming and politics, and the opinions about the decision were passionate. Athlete and prominent conservative poster Clay Travis stated the removal was evidence things have gotten "more insane" than possible.

Madden has removed Jon Gruden from the video game because of his emails. To my knowledge they have never removed any player for any crimes. Nor should they, by the way. Just when you think things can’t get more insane they do. pic.twitter.com/jccsuqIOlv

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 13, 2021

However, contrary to Travis' tweet, EA has removed players from the game for crimes. In the 2010s, EA removed convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez from NCAA 14 and Madden NFL 25 and it also removed Ray Rice from Madden '15 after video came out of the running back assaulting his wife.