Former Washington safety D.J. Swearinger spoke out on Friday about his experience while playing for his former team, saying “they all need to be exposed.”
Swearinger, who now plays for the New Orleans Saints, shared a screenshot on social media of an aggressive conversation he says he had with former head coach Jay Gruden following a blowout loss against the New York Giants in 2018.
“Wanna play? Let’s f—ing play …,” a text, allegedly from Gruden, read.
“When [sic] face-to-face, man-to-man tomorrow or tonight if you like,” Swearinger responded. “And what do you mean wanna play?!”
Gruden then agreed to meet, to which Swearinger replied: “We’ll let cooler heads prevail tomorrow at 10 am.”
Swearinger said the confrontation erupted after Gruden was incorrectly informed by someone that the safety had spoken out poorly about his coach in an interview following the 40-16 loss to the Giants.
“… when he watched the interview he realized that person was lying & he actually agreed with everything I said,” Swearinger wrote in the post.
“Soooo as a player how would you look @ your coach for the rest of the season?! How can you motivate yourself to play for a guy who talks to you less than a man?! Being the man I am I couldn’t be myself after this & that is what lead me to my last interview in which I said a few things that were true but not on the right stage or platform.”
Trouble for Washington began when the team faced mounting pressure to retire the Redskins name and logo over the negative connotations associated with the symbol. Shortly after majority owner Dan Snyder announced the name change, a bombshell Washington Post report was dropped that detailed several sexual harassment allegations leveled by 15 former female employees against the organization.
“I was gonna [give] the man [Gruden] a pass but after what’s going on with that organization with women! They all need to be exposed. I have a daughter to raise!” Swearinger added.
