{"id":2889,"date":"2021-10-21T13:14:13","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T13:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=2889"},"modified":"2021-10-21T13:14:43","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T13:14:43","slug":"white-america-gave-a-hall-pass-to-jon-gruden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/21\/white-america-gave-a-hall-pass-to-jon-gruden\/","title":{"rendered":"White America Gave a \u201cHall Pass\u201d to Jon Gruden"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Lafe Tolliver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
\nGuest Column<\/p>\n

Remember in high school when you had to leave your class and go\u00a0to another room or leave the building or even go to the principal\u2019s office, that\u00a0you had to get a \u201chall pass\u201d so that when you ran into the hall monitor kid sitting at a desk in the hallway, you could show the monitor your pass and get on with your business or appointed destination?<\/p>\n

And, if you did not have a hall pass, the hall monitor was \u201cauthorized\u201d by the school principal to stop you and if you could not show the proper credentials, the principal or a teacher would come out and ask you what the commotion is about.<\/p>\n

But you know and I know that some kids were simply \u201cspecial.\u201d They did not need a hall pass to keep on doing what they were doing. They were exempt from the monitor\u2019s scrutiny and he or she did not call them out, because they were \u201cspecial.\u201d<\/p>\n

They might have been the school\u2019s quarterback or the kid everybody feared who, if you crossed him, you would see him in the parking lot waiting for you with a mean look\u2026and you knew what that could mean.<\/p>\n

Or, that person might have been the cute girl who winked at you and that wink told you, \u201cIf you let me pass, we could be friends.\u201d And, in your awkward stage of life, getting a wink from a knockout like Lakesha was worth walking\u00a0barefoot on hot glass shards!<\/p>\n

Well, if you have been following the news lately about the famed NFL football coach, Jon Gruden, he was fired\/resigned from the head coach job of the Las Vegas Raiders.<\/p>\n

Jon Gruden was a famed and fabled coach whose aura and presence lit up a room and his advice to young wannabee ballers was invaluable.\u00a0Jon ruled the roost. His touch was golden. He strutted when others simply walked. He sparkled when others simply smiled. He laughed when others just giggled.<\/p>\n

Jon Gruden was the epitome of football ruggedness and mental acuity.\u00a0He was the total package. He was the kind of guy who if he went out for a meal and forget his wallet, the restaurant owner would gladly wait for payment or\u00a0gladly give him a mulligan for the meal because, Jon ate at his place!<\/p>\n

Jon was used to the glad hand treatment. He called and you answered.\u00a0He speculated and you took it to the football bank. He could make careers\u00a0happen for players and his football advice was greedily gobbled up by\u00a0starry eyed recruits.<\/p>\n

As they would say, \u201cJon had it goin\u2019 on!\u201d<\/p>\n

But\u2026something happened. Somebody came across some old emails\u00a0\u00a0in which Jon had made crude, ugly and demeaning comments about Black people, women referees and gay people; and they were neither football funny nor of noble character.<\/p>\n

Jon must have missed a payment on his account as a goodie two shoes type of guy and the football gods, envious and vindictive as they are wont to be,\u00a0rose as one and decided to toss Jon out of their favorite club.<\/p>\n

Word came out that Jon had a dark side to him. That dark and brooding side was composed of demons that told Jon to mock Black people and to make fun of the football commissioner, Roger Goodall, and to castigate women referees and to cast aspersions on so many \u201cothers\u201d that when the record was tallied up, Jon was in hock to the football gods.<\/p>\n

He was in hock to a fiendish spirit that he harbored which belied his true intents (or so he now says).<\/p>\n

Jon was in acute damage control and with his feverish apologies on\u00a0national media outlets, Jon was seeing the football gods now mock him as he so easily, readily and repeatedly mocked others.<\/p>\n

Jon saw the ominous clouds approaching his fair ship and he could not\u00a0have the sails catch the wind and thus sail away from the pending storm.<\/p>\n

No, my friend Jon Gruden suddenly lost his hall pass.\u00a0Jon could not get by on the strength of his gregarious personality, wit and\u00a0charm.<\/p>\n

The football gods were fickle and were demanding an accounting from\u00a0Jon and Jon could not pay their due and owing tab. His bill, the bill that he ran up for years and years and fooled others into thinking he was all that and a bag of chips, was past due and owing.<\/p>\n

The new Jon, this Jon was the one we saw standing before the unrelenting cameras mercilessly jabbing at his every word when he tried to utter a strange language of contrition and sorrow.<\/p>\n

A language that he was not used to speaking and was foreign to his\u00a0lips but those lips that were not as big as those puffy Michelin tires as he racially ascribed to a Black football executive.<\/p>\n

Initially, some of Jon\u2019s past Black co-workers, not knowing yet the full\u00a0venom that Jon released besides the \u201cbig lips\u201d issue, stood by him and\u00a0tried to make lame defenses for him, but, alas, there was no salvation for Jon.<\/p>\n

For years, Jon Gruden had a hall pass from America and he used it like\u00a0a thief using a free ATM. Life was good for Jon. Real good!<\/p>\n

But Jon did not know that at some time in your life, the hall pass scheme can lose it luster and power; and then you must turn around and go to the principal\u2019s office and face the music.<\/p>\n

Oh, how the mighty have fallen!<\/p>\n

Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lafe Tolliver, Esq Guest Column Remember in high school when you had to leave your class and go\u00a0to another room or leave the building or even go to the principal\u2019s office, that\u00a0you had to get a \u201chall pass\u201d so that when you ran into the hall monitor kid sitting at a desk in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[80],"class_list":["post-2889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2890,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2889\/revisions\/2890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2889"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=2889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}