The National Football League (NFL) will appeal a judge’s ruling in the case involving former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden.
Gruden is suing the NFL for allegedly leaking the controversial emails that led to his resignation last October, a charge that the league emphatically denies.
Clark County District Court Judge Nancy Allf rejected the league’s request to move the lawsuit from a public courtroom into closed-door arbitration. The judge also rejected requests from the NFL to either have the entire case thrown out or have it decided in discussions with the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, as arbiter.
Judge Allf made her decision after reading legal briefs from both sets of attorneys and listening to oral arguments about the case for close to 90 minutes. Allf rejected the NFL’s argument that Gruden’s contract made arbitration necessary because the Raiders no longer employed him. She also expressed concern over a possible conflict of interest involving Goodell’s role as a likely arbiter.
“Neither the NFL nor the Commissioner (Goodell) leaked Coach Gruden’s offensive emails,” the NFL said after the ruling, adding that they will be filing an appeal.
“We believe Coach Gruden’s claims should have been compelled to arbitration, and we will file an appeal of the Court’s determination,” the NFL continued. “The Court’s denial of our motion to dismiss is not a determination on the merits of Coach Gruden’s lawsuit, which, as we have said from the outset, lacks a basis in law and fact and proceeds from a false premise — neither the NFL nor the Commissioner leaked Coach Gruden’s offensive e-mails.”
E-mails from Gruden spanning from 2011 to 2018 came to light amid an NFL investigation of workplace misconduct into the Washington Commanders. The e-mails showed that Gruden, then an announcer for ESPN, had written misogynistic and homophobic comments to multiple people, including then-Washington team president Bruce Allen.
Gruden coached in the NFL from 1990 to 2008, including as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was hired by the Raiders again in 2018, the team’s first year in Las Vegas.
The e-mails from Gruden were sent to Allen’s team e-mail account. Gruden and Allen had previously worked together during Gruden’s first tenure as Raiders head coach and his time with the Buccaneers.
Gruden’s attorney Adam Hosmer-Henner does not deny that the e-mails were sent by his client but says the league singled him out amid the massive number of e-mails collected by the league. The attorney claimed the NFL obtained 650,000 e-mails while investigating the Commanders.
“There is no explanation or justification for why Gruden’s e-mails were the only ones made public out of the 650,000 e-mails collected … or for why the e-mails were held for months before being released in the middle of the Raiders’ season,” the attorney said.
Gruden last coached the Raiders on October 10, just two days after the Wall Street Journal reported that he used a racist term to describe NFL players’ union chief DeMaurice Smith. However, he resigned the following day after the New York Times reported that Gruden sent additional offensive e-mails.
“They pressured the Raiders to fire him,” Hosmer-Henner told the judge. “And when the Raiders didn’t, and he coached through that weekend, (the league) continued to threaten that more documents would be leaked.”
Gruden had six years remaining on a 10-year, $100 million contract he’d signed with the Raiders at the time of his departure. Before filing his lawsuit last November, Gruden accepted a financial settlement from the team. The terms of the settlement are not known.
The lawsuit alleges contract interference and conspiracy and asks for an unspecified amount in monetary damages. It also claims that making the e-mails public has damaged Gruden’s reputation and affected his ability to obtain endorsements.
