I’ve never been impressed with Jon Gruden as a coach or an intellect, but I did at least enjoy the glint in his eye and his obvious enthusiasm for life and professional football. I guess I’m not surprised to learn that he’s a right-wing asshole although I never considered his politics prior to the current controversy that cost him his job as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.

I’m often frustrated when politics intersect with pro football because I feel like a lot of people who are not fans of the sport don’t understand how decisions are made. When you’re putting together a football team, you really don’t want to have distractions. The margin between a winning and losing franchise is so thin that you can’t be expected to be successful if your quarterback isn’t almost psychotically focused on watching game film and preparing for the next opponent. You don’t want your players answering questions constantly about the political views of their teammates. The captains of your team need to command universal respect in the locker room, not divide the clubhouse with social commentary.

Joe Gruden was an equal opportunity offender in his private email correspondence. He called the NFL commissioner a faggot and wrote that NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, who is black, “has lips the size of michellin tires.” He shared photos of topless cheerleaders, said the owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers could suck his dick, and criticized the Rams for drafting an openly gay player.

Some people think it’s wrong to fire someone for things they said privately, although to be clear Gruden resigned. It’s fair to say, however, that he was going to lose his job either way. But the reason he couldn’t coach anymore wasn’t specifically because he said some politically incorrect things in emails to friends and associates. It’s because those statements revealed things about his belief system that made it impossible to lead an NFL franchise.

The racist trope about DeMaurice Smith’s lips was probably enough on its own to lose him the respect of his locker room, which is majority black and includes white players who are equally unimpressed. But Gruden also revealed a callous disregard for player safety by railing against league efforts to limit concussions. That appears to have been his primary beef with league commissioner Roger Goodell.

In numerous emails during a seven-year period ending in early 2018, Gruden criticized Goodell and the league for trying to reduce concussions…

Gruden told ESPN on Sunday that the league was reviewing emails in which he criticized Goodell, and explained that he had been upset about team owners’ lockout of the players in 2011, when some of the emails were written. Gruden said in that interview that he had used an expletive to refer to Goodell and that he did so because he disapproved of Goodell’s emphasis on safety, which he believed was scaring parents into steering their sons away from football.

This is typical right-wing thinking. To Gruden, parents were growing shy about letting their kids play football because the NFL was trying to make the game safer rather than because medical science had revealed the true dangers of the sport. But his reasoning is beside the point. The important thing is that he didn’t put the well-being of the players first.

The relationship between players and coaches is built on trust and respect, and Gruden was never going to have either after these emails were revealed. He and many other white coaches could lead effectively despite having political views that run contrary to most of his players. It wasn’t a deal-breaker that he had “old school” views about women and gays. But the fact that he’s privately contemptuous of blacks and that he doesn’t put player safety first meant that he could no longer command respect.

And that loss of respect isn’t related to how his players learned about his private opinions. What matters is the truth, and the truth is what cost Gruden his job.

In some ways, this is a lot like the situation with Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who has been unemployable in the NFL since his decision to kneel during the national anthem in protest of policy brutality against blacks. Many people have rightly noted that Kaerpernick is more talented than dozens of quarterbacks, mainly backups, who play in the league. What they tend to miss is that he’s not so talented as to make up for the distraction he’d create in the clubhouse. It’s true he was initially blackballed for his political beliefs, but that is not why teams continue to take a pass on bringing him into their clubhouse. Like Gruden, he has the tools to do the job but not the ability to keep a team’s focus on football.

The situation with Gruden is more severe however. While a 53-man football roster would inevitably have a few players who dislike Kaepernick for his political views, the main distraction he’d create would be driven by the media. Gruden’s problem is that no player would trust him to look after their safety and the vast majority would not want to play for a racist. So, while Gruden can still develop a game plan and teach players how to be better performers on the field, he can never again be an effective leader. He’s unemployable.

In Kaepernick’s case, he made a sacrifice. He may not have realized at the outset that his political activism could cost him his career, but he didn’t back down when it started to become clear that it would. Gruden hasn’t made any sacrifices or put anyone else’s interest above his own. Political correctness didn’t cost him job. His true character did that.