ESPN implies Daniel Snyder was behind Jon Gruden leak

Sep 9, 2018; Glendale, AZ, USA; Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder prior to the game against the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Jon Gruden resigned as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders just over a year ago, and there has been a mystery ever since regarding the source of the leak of the former coach’s emails.

ESPN seems to think they know the source of the leak.

ESPN published a lengthy story on Thursday surrounding the status of Daniel Snyder ownership of the Washington Commanders. In the article, ESPN implied that Snyder was behind the Gruden email leaks.

The article pointed out that Snyder hates The Washington Post, a newspaper that has relentlessly attacked him. The Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, who some believe has interest in ousting Snyder in order to buy the Commanders. The article says that any Snyder leaks would likely go to a Washington Post rival. ESPN noted that the Gruden email leak went to The Wall Street Journal, and the Bruce Allen email leaks that sealed Gruden’s fate went to The New York Times.

The article also noted that when the organization was being investigated over its workplace environment, Snyder tried to pin everything on Allen, the team’s former president. Snyder’s attorneys gave the NFL over 400,000 emails sent by Allen and identified specific inappropriate emails.

The idea is that in an interest of self-preservation, Snyder does not care what collateral damage he collects. In this case, Snyder was trying to make Allen the fall guy, and allegedly leaked the Gruden emails to deflect negative attention from Washington’s case to Gruden. If this was Snyder’s tactic, it worked.

Snyder reportedly has compiled dirt on his fellow owners, as well as Commissioner Roger Goodell. If Snyder was willing to use dirt to end Gruden’s coaching career, imagine what he would do to any fellow owner that attempts to vote him out of the league.