Jon Gruden's name had appeared between Ronde Barber and John Lynch in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Ring of Honor along the upper-deck facade of Raymond James Stadium. But no more.
The first coach to lead the franchise to a Super Bowl title is being removed from the ring based on revelations within the past week that he used bigoted comments in reference to NFL owners, an NFL Players Association official and even league commissioner Roger Goodell.
Related: Jon Gruden Resigns as Raiders Coach After Bigoted Emails Surface
"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have advocated for purposeful change in the areas of race relations, gender equality, diversity and inclusion for many years," the team said in a statement. "While we acknowledge Jon Gruden's contributions on the field, his actions go against our core values as an organization. Therefore, he will no longer continue to be a member of the Buccaneers Ring of Honor."
The announcement came one day after Gruden announced his resignation as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
As reported by Sports Illustrated, Gruden coached the Bucs from 2002 to 2008 and was inducted into the Ring of Honor in 2017. In 2020, the team erected a statue of the former head coach in the lobby of the training facility. There's no word on the fate of the statuary.
