Jon Gruden Gave An A+++ Response To Reports Of Nelson Agholor Telling All His Teammates They Sucked After The Raiders Collapse
[The Athletic] - Agholor, in the words of teammates, was pissed. The receiver walked to the middle of the locker room before coach Jon Gruden addressed the team and started screaming at them.
Agholor, according to those in the room, said his teammates were selfish and didn’t work hard enough, and that they had quit against the Dolphins as well as in the previous two losses. He said there was no accountability in the locker room, and on winning teams players play for one another and the coaches. The Raiders’ performance over the previous six games was unacceptable, and too many people within the team were just flat-out accepting it.
Agholor told his teammates that they sucked.
Then, according to witnesses, he was done and there was silence. Gruden didn’t respond, and neither did any of the players. (When contacted Thursday night about the speech, Gruden texted, “I love Agholor.”)
You have to be the world’s biggest asshole to not love Jon Gruden. He's the definition of football guy. He's so unintentionally hilarious while still being crazy, it's the perfect mix. Oh you have reports of a wide receiver losing his shit in the locker room, telling all his teammates they sucked after one of the worst collapses in recent memory? Big fucking deal. I LOVE Agholor. What a response.
Honestly the biggest surprise is that Gruden texts. I would have 100% assumed he only talks via speaker phone. That just seems like what Gruden would do. He doesn't have time for texts. You give that man a call if you want a response. On the other end of the spectrum the least shocking thing is Gruden calling him Agholor. No doubt in my mind he refers to every player he's ever coached strictly by last name, and/or number. It's like Tim Riggins calling people by number. Such a cool sounding thing as long as you have a cool number. Saracen going by seven? That works. If he was seventeen? That doesn't really work. 1-7 works there. Anyways, just what I expect Gruden to sound like.
You may remember this melt down. Here's what caused Agholor to tell the Raiders they sucked. All the chaos started when Carr hit Agholor for this 85 yard bomb to take the lead.
Naturally Daniel Carlson biffed the extra point so the lead was just 6. Meanwhile, the Dolphins pulled Tua for Fitzpatrick again and here he comes. Ho-hum 59-yard pass and catch to Myles Gaskin and making the extra point gives the Dolphins the lead. Carr throws a bomb, DPI, of course:
Again, look at the clock here. So far we're barely over a minute of game time and all this shit is going on. This is where it really goes to hell though. The Raiders get the ball with goal-to-go. Apparently math isn't Gruden's best asset because instead of scoring a touchdown, they opt to waste clock and kick a field goal. I get wasting the clock, but the Dolphins were begging you to score. You score a touchdown after wasting some clock. So now with a 2 point lead, here we go:
Ball game. Honestly how was it only Agholor here telling the Raiders they sucked? How do more people not lose their shit on everything that just happened? The defense, well, they can't really say anything, but you can at least scream about the dumbass decision making offensively. The offense can scream about how you get beat deep when that's the only thing you can't do.