Raiders' Maxx Crosby Speaks on Jon Gruden's Exit

Heading into the draft when Crosby was picked, a lot of teams were not looking at him or even had him on their draft board. But Gruden did. And in the fourth round, Crosby got the call by Gruden and it was one if not the best draft picks that Gruden made while being a member of the Raiders franchise. Gruden was high on Crosby, and now it is clear why he was.

Unfortunately, Gruden's second stint with the Silver and Black came to an end in 2021 after an email surfaced from Gruden's past. It was horrible timing when Gruden was released by the team because that season, the Raiders had gotten off to a fast start, and they were looking like the real deal.

Crosby recently spoke about the day that Gruden got released on the former NFL player, Johnny Manziel, podcast.

"It makes me sick for him [Gruden]," said Crosby about Gruden not coaching in the NFL. "The dude is addicted to football. He is a football lifer. Gruden was so good to me, and when that situation happened, I remember it so vividly. We started the year so well, we beat Baltimore in OT, we went to Pittsburgh, we beat Pittsburgh... we were feeling really good. We are cooking, we are feeling great."

"Going into the week we were playing Chicago, that is where the email leaked ... it became a big thing. And you can tell that Gruden was ... up over it. And he felt so bad and he apologized in front of the team, and he was in tears. He is like, I am sorry, this is not me, this is ten years ago."

"Then after the game against Chicago, that is when all the emails started leaking. And it just got worse and worse, and it was just happening so fast. And as a team, we are like what is going on. It is everywhere ... That night, I got a call from [Mike] Mayock, and Gruden resigned."