Las Vegas (AP) A Nevada court on Monday appears to have cleared the way for a 2021 lawsuit brought by former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell. Gruden claims that his career was ruined by a nefarious and well-planned campaign that leaked old emails he sent that contained racist, misogynistic, and homophobic remarks.
After a Las Vegas judge denied league attempts to have Gruden’s claim dismissed outright or to mandate out-of-court negotiations through an arbitration procedure that Goodell could supervise, the NFL filed an appeal with the Nevada Supreme Court in 2022.
In a 5-2 decision, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that Gruden, as a former employee, is exempt from the NFL Constitution’s arbitration clause, which it deems unconscionable.
Gruden’s lawsuit claimed that by disclosing emails that Gruden wrote while working as an on-air analyst at ESPN from 2011 to 2018, Goodell and the NFL put pressure on the Raiders to terminate him. After leaving the Raiders in October 2021, Gruden filed a lawsuit against the league a month later.
Regarding the decision, the NFL chose not to comment.
When contacted by phone for comment, Gruden’s lawyer did not answer.
When the Raiders relocated from Oakland, California to Las Vegas in 2020, Gruden was the team’s head coach. He is requesting financial compensation, claiming that his career and endorsement deals were destroyed by the Wall Street Journal’s and the New York Times’ selective release of the emails.
After coaching the Raiders in Oakland from 1998 to 2001, Gruden spent seven years as the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which won a Super Bowl in 2003. Before joining the Raiders once more in 2018, he worked for ESPN for a number of years as a TV analyst.
In 2023, he served as a consultant with the New Orleans Saints. He currently serves as a consultant and co-owner of the Nashville Kats, an Arena Football One team.
