Anyone familiar with the NFL in the 2000s remembers the controversial feud between John Gruden and Keyshawn Johnson. Since the two visibly didn’t get along in Tampa Bay, the former wide receiver believes his side of the story was overlooked. Well, at least, that was the case until the coach’s problematic emails became public in 2021.
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During an appearance on All Facts No Brakes, Johnson rewound the clock and expressed how he was misunderstood and stereotyped during his time with the Buccaneers.
“I don’t know if people got that right,” explained the former wide receiver, sharing how he was racially discriminated against during his feud with Gruden.
“They looked at it and it’s the receiver from the West Coast with the board shorts, t-shirts, flip-flops. Black man going at a white coach; he’s got to be the problem.”
Calling the distressing experience a “stain on his persona,” Johnson shared when his side of the story finally got recognition in 2021. That year, the New York Times reported on the multiple misogynistic and homophobic emails the coach had sent between 2011 and 2018.
Working as the Raiders coach at the time, Gruden had no choice but to resign from his position.
“I don’t think people got the story. It didn’t really hit till the Las Vegas Raider thing happened with him and all the emails and stuff came out and everybody was like, well, maybe Keyshawn (was in the right).”
Johnson said that he never accused Gruden of being a bigot, but rather disliked his behavior during his time with the Raiders. He even went on to call him a “phony baloney” and described him as someone like a “used car salesman.”
Clearly, Johnson didn’t hold back from expressing his views candidly in the recent podcast. And it’s not the first time he’s done so either.
Johnson once called Gruden a “fraud”
The former NFL wide receiver entered the league as the first overall pick by the Jets and was later traded to Tampa Bay. Although he had a solid track record with his new team, his issues with the coach took center stage, and Johnson was ultimately traded to Dallas in 2004.
The true story behind the feud, however, didn’t emerge until Gruden’s inappropriate and problematic emails came to light in 2021.
“He’s just always been a fraud to me,” Johnson told KJM. “From day one, he’s been a used-car salesman and people bought it because he inherited a team built by Tony Dungy and Rich McKay.”
He further called out his former coach, noting how Gruden tried to steal the limelight after their Super Bowl win in 2002.
“Think about it, we won the championship and we’re standing on the podium in the Super Bowl, and the general manager’s trying to raise the trophy and the head coach (Gruden) takes the trophy away from him, basically says, ‘give me this, this belongs to me.'”
Johnson also alleged that the GM, at the time, Rich McKay, left the team the following year in the middle of the season because of Gruden.
As a result, in the wake of Gruden’s resignation over the controversial emails, he has only served in advisory roles for the Saints and currently for the Milano Seamen.
As for Johnson, the star wide receiver retired from the league in 2007 after playing for a year with the Panthers. Despite several offers from different franchises, the Pro Bowler decided to hang up his cleats and later served as an analyst on ESPN.
