He might come cheap.
What are we thinking? Putting up this Photoshopped image of Jon Gruden as the next chancellor of the University of Wisconsin’s flagship Madison campus? (He could double as Paul Chryst’s offensive coordinator!)
We are sure to be condemned by all Woke-thinking reacting progressives. But we risk no highly compensated sinecure, no political office, no statue to be tossed into Lake Monona, no name to be stripped from the UW Memorial Play Circle.
As for our good reputation (if any remains), we equivocate by saying we post this provocation to jump start discussion on the limits of free speech. Is there no statute of limitations? Does context count? Any degrees of severity? You know, the sifting and winnowing thingie.
We stipulate: Constrained by the First Amendment, government has brought no prosecution. His private-sector employer, the Las Vegas Raiders football organization, is free to fire its head coach. No law stopping the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — the team Gruden coached to a 2002 Super Bowl championship — from expunging his name from its circle of honor.
Still, we ask: were they justified in doing so? Or did they over-react?
Sudden death
We turn to a brave, contrarian essay in the American Spectator arguing that Jon Gruden is the latest victim of cancel culture. Author Scott McKay reports that:
- Gruden criticized football players for kneeling for the National Anthem. Is that no longer a subject of debate?
- Gruden used the term “queer” to describe a football player. McKay asks, “if it’s an anti-gay slur, then what does the “Q” in LGBTQ stand for?” Gruden was coaching an out, gay man on his Raiders team.
- Called Joe Biden a “nervous clueless p*ssy.” History may so record.
- Trashed NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. As do most football fans.
Now the moral compass starts jumping
The executive director of the NFL Players Assn. is a man named DeMaurice Smith. Gruden wrote “Dumborris Smith.” So management disagrees with the union head. Big Whup! WHAT? He’s a black man. Now we’re treading on eggshells.
Gruden wrote that Smith “had lips like a Michelin tire.” Sounds racist as hell even here at the Werkes. McKay argues that Gruden was resorting to “an old redneck saying which has it that liars speak from rubber lips. Gruden said that’s what he meant.” (BTW: Isn’t “redneck” also a slur?)
McKay speculates this e-mail surfaced only when Smith was facing revolt from his membership and needed to play victim. McKay reports that Gruden’s former broadcast partner on Monday Night Football, Mike Tirico, vouches that Jon Gruden is not racist. So, too, former head coach and TV football commentator Tony Dungy. Both black men.
When did he say it? These characterizations were made 10 years ago — Where? — in private e-mails to friends. Chancellor Blank defenestrated Fredric March for something he did 50 years before his death, as a college sophomore.
Is Jon Gruden another Bull Connor? Pitchfork Ben Tillman? Nathan Bedford Forrest? Are we down to one strike, you’re out?
Blaska’s Bottom Line goes to McKay: “Gruden is now out of the NFL, which has booked hardly-wholesome rappers Dr. Dre’, Snoop Dogg, and Eminem for its Super Bowl halftime show. Satire is now obsolete.”
Education
Blaska Policy Werkes 
Obvious and compelling; Fire Chryst……..Hire GRUDEN.
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Great thoughts on Rebecca Blank and her insidious tenure at UW.
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And yes I like the idea of hiring Gruden and firing Chryst. Hell, Gruden could be the first chancellor and head coach!
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A cost savings!
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Pingback: Is Jon Gruden the next UW-Madison chancellor? – AMS 360: An Omnivorous View of STEM & Beyond
Only if he will compel the memorial union to bring back the 46 oz beer cups that were banned by the previous chancellor.
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Jon Gruden would be an excellent chancellor choice, so would Curt Schilling or Jason Whitlock, but I’d like to nominate Dave Chappelle. Chappelle wouldn’t back down in the face of controversy.
He’d certainly lighten up UW’s dystopian darkness with some good humor.
Chappelle would slay those PC sacred cows and make those sanctimonious, SJWs snowflakes melt. Not only would the low-flow lockstep Leftist lemmings go scurrying off clutching their pearls and looking for the nearest fainting couch seeking their safe space, but he’d also open up their eyes and bring them much-needed reality training, “No, Heather, we don’t care about your UW diversity training or your BLM social justice cred, we just care about the knowledge, skills and abilities you bring to the job.”
Who else could pull off a comedy sketch about Clayton Bigsby, a blind, black white supremacist?
FYEE: for your enjoyment and edification.
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The word police operate on the basis there is an agreed upon but contrived sacredness (fragility) inherent to certain groups when it comes to making fun of them.
Wouldn’t equity demand that virtually no one or no group is off limits when it comes to ridicule, mocking, or generally being the butt of jokes?
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ESPN. Or, Mr. Gruden could be Colin K’s personal QB coach.
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Chuckie is the best -supply your own noun here… And honest and forthright. And Hey, many of us used those terms, (but maybe weren’t not important enuff for scrutiny), because they were vibrant & descriptive, if not particularly PC. Words in bravado… It all made up his persona -and success.
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According to the woke marxist socialists in Madison, any applicant must be able to fit certain criteria in order to be the next chancellor of the university. The question is: How do you fit any one person into the now staggering number of criteria demanded by the woke socialists. Such as:
1. Are you a person of color?
2. Did you grow up poor and on welfare and food stamps?
3. Where you raised in a single family household?
4. Did you know your father or who he was?
5. Have you ever done time in jail?
6. Are you a member of the LGBTQ community?
7. What is your political affiliation?
8. Are you for a marxist/socialist society?
9. Who did you vote for President in the last election?
10. What will you do to dismantle the white, racist, privileged society as represented by the University of Wisconsin Madison?
You see, you could fit into nine of the ten categories and not be a member of the LGBTQ community or not be a person of color and groups on the woke left will complain that you are not qualified to lead the university. I am starting to see that in their woke minds it is getting harder and harder for anyone to be a good candidate for any position of power at the university or in government.
Sad that these criteria have replaced the ability to do the job.
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By the way, I would think that Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K. or my pick of Joe Rogan would make the perfect next chancellor of the university here in Madison.
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