In the two weeks since Jon Gruden resigned as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, there have been hours of radio and television plus pages and pages of internet print on the subject. The best thing I saw this week was not on either.

Former ESPN host Bob Ley and former Sports Illustrated/Baseball America editor BJ Schecter organized and moderated a virtual panel of sports dignitaries entitled, "The Gruden Effect: Examining the Larger Issues."

The event was held Monday night as part of a Sports Media Speaker Series at Seton Hall University. 

"All of these things require a path to redemption, right?" asked ESPN and HBO's Bomani Jones, one of four panelists in addition to Schecter and Ley. "Like if you don't have a path to redemption, then people have no reason to change or anything. There's nothing to look forward to."

Jones was joined on the virtual dais by the assistant executive director of external affairs for the NFL Players Association George Attalah, former executive director of the NBA Players Association Charles Grantham, and NFL Network reporter Judy Battista.

Ley was masterful in his moderation and made you feel like you were watching an extended version of Outside the Lines.

"I need to say one sentence about this because I've been trying to suppress some of the anger and all of a sudden the feelings have just come back," Attalah said. "The reason it was okay for no action to be taken between the Friday email and the Sunday game was that DeMaurice Smith, who was a black labor lawyer who wasn't 'one of them.' Period. That just needed to be said, as bluntly as possible."

During his time at the NBAPA, Grantham presided over three collective bargaining agreements. He was far from surprised that emails like the ones Gruden sent existed.

"Really nothing new. I mean, I go back to (former Cincinnati Reds owner) Marge Schott," Grantham said. "I go back to (former Los Angeles Clippers owner) Donald Sterling., This is 2021, nothing new is really happening here."

Students were allowed to ask questions at the end, but it was clear no one held back.

 "What I see on the horizon, however, is that time and time again, they proved that the organizational institution of football or basketball or baseball or hockey it's time for some adjustments and some changes," Grantham said. "This is not a regular, normal business. These are cartels. They run it the way they choose to run it. At a time when we're looking for diversity, it means the structural change has to start."

Battista discussed the media perspective on the leaked emails. She said it is impossible that the emails reported by both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times are the only derogatory inappropriate ones.

"Obviously every reporter wants to see all 650,000 emails," she said. "Since the Washington Football Team investigation wrapped up over the summer, right? Jon Gruden deserves everything he is getting. So does Bruce Allen for that matter, but who has also been a part of this? We don't know what happened in Washington and what that workplace environment was like beyond, that it was a very toxic workplace. I think highly unprofessional is how they described it. So yes, I would like to see all the emails."

Still, she does not see complete transparency surrounding the Washington Football Team.

"There is no real ground-level pressure on these owners, whether on a national level or a local level," Bomani Jones said. "When this thing happened on Friday, we kind of played it macro level. The larger NFL Press Corps, for whatever reason, is not really a questioning bunch. Like this goes differently from sport to sport. It's not a broad indictment of anybody." 

Ley has been active with his alma mater Seton Hall since retiring from ESPN in June 2019. He has been very active in creating a greater sports media program within the School of Communications and the Arts and serves on the board of regents.  He told me on my Sports with Friends podcast that he looks back fondly on his time at ESPN but relishes new challenges.   

Grantham is currently the Director of the Center for Sport Management at Seton Hall as well. He noted that unless the players take a larger role in determining the future of the NFL through their union things like the Gruden emails will keep happening.

"I don't see that happening unless they are compelled to do it by the government or some other outside force, such as the union, the players finally figure and decide that it's going to be a priority," Grantham added. "Is that a hostile environment? It's a labor-management issue."

Like podcasts, long-form entertainment can take an issue to levels that short segments simply cannot. When it came to Jon Gruden, there was a lot to unpack.