Mike Tirico is standing by his guy.

The NBC Sports host addressed on Sunday the story regarding Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, who sent a racist email 10 years ago insulting NFLPA president DeMaurice Smith.

At the time of the email, Gruden was the lead analyst for ESPN’s Monday Night Football. His tag-team partner was Tirico, who was in the midst of a 10-year run as the play-by-play voice for Monday Night Football. Here’s what Tirico, who’s Black, had to say Sunday, according to WFAN:

“I should weigh in a little bit here because I was with Jon at that time, seven years as my partner on Monday Night Football. I probably know Jon better than anyone in the league on a personal level. He said already that he was ashamed by the comments in the e-mail. The comments in the e-mail are wrong. But, my experience kind of parallels Tim Brown, who played for Jon and is a Hall of Fame receiver. He said he never experienced or saw anything that would say Jon was racist in any way. That is exactly the experience I had in seven years of traveling, three days together on the road every week.”

On Sunday, following the Raiders’ 20-9 loss to the Chicago Bears, Gruden apologized for the email. Per ESPN:

“All I can say is I’m not a racist,” Gruden said. “I can’t tell you how sick I am. I apologize again to De Smith. But I feel good about who I am, what I’ve done my entire life. And I apologize for the insensitive remarks I had. I had no racial intentions with those remarks at all. … I’m not like that at all. But I apologize.”

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported the details of the insulting email, which Gruden sent during the 2011 lockout to former Washington president Bruce Allen.

“Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin tires,” he wrote in the email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Smith provided a statement to the Journal:

“This is not the first racist comment that I’ve heard and it probably will not be the last. This is a thick skin job for someone with dark skin, just like it always has been for many people who look like me and work in corporate America. You know people are sometimes saying things behind your back that are racist just like you see people talk and write about you using thinly coded and racist language. Racism like this comes from the fact that I’m at the same table as they are and they don’t think someone who looks like me belongs. I’m sorry my family has to see something like this but I would rather they know. I will not let it define me.”

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Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com.