A number of Raiders players had their first chance to publicly comment on former head coach Jon Gruden’s resignation on Wednesday, including quarterback Derek Carr.
Carr said there’s no book on how to respond to the revelations about what Gruden said in his emails and that he felt “angry, sick, upset, mad, frustrated” about what’s happened. He said he also feels “empathy” for a coach he has grown close to over the last few years.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love the man, and you hate the sin,” Carr said, via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com. “Like for anybody, no one is perfect. If we just started opening up everybody’s private emails and texts, people will start sweating a little bit. Hopefully not too many, but maybe that’s what they should do for all coaches and GMs and owners from now on. You got to open up everything and see what happens. But you hate the action, you hate it. You’re not supposed to like it, but you love the person. And I love the person. I’ve grown to love him so much.”
While Carr is processing those feelings, he’s also cognizant that the team still has 12 games left in their season and “everything out in front of us that we’ve wanted from the beginning.” He said the team needs a leader “more than ever” and that it is his job to be that kind of leader in hopes of making sure that the team can move forward from the Gruden tumult without sinking their season.