Jon Gruden vs. NFL: Legal Battle Continues in Nevada
The Nevada Supreme Court sent Jon Gruden’s case back to the state District Court on Thursday, as the NFL filed two motions seeking the expedited dismissal of the claims. Gruden resigned as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders in October 2021, following the publication of emails he sent years earlier, which contained racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language. A month later, he sued the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell, alleging a “malicious and orchestrated campaign” to destroy his career by leaking emails. In the motion filed on Thursday, NFL lawyers used strong language, arguing that Gruden’s lawsuit is based on unfounded accusations and should be dismissed.Previously, the Nevada Supreme Court had denied the league’s appeal of an August ruling that allowed Gruden to proceed with his lawsuit, avoiding league arbitration. In the motion, the league’s lawyers pointed out that Gruden cannot dispute the authorship of the emails or the fact that he sent them to multiple parties. Furthermore, he cannot claim that the emails were edited or deceptively altered, nor that the opinions expressed were not his own. The motion to dismiss invokes Nevada’s anti-SLAPP law, which protects against lawsuits intended to silence those who exercise their First Amendment rights. In 2022, the NFL appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, following the rejection by a Las Vegas judge of the league’s requests to dismiss Gruden’s lawsuit or to order out-of-court talks through an arbitration process. The higher court, in a 5-2 decision, ruled that “the arbitration clause in the NFL Constitution is excessive and does not apply to Gruden as a former employee”. Gruden was an ESPN analyst from 2011 to 2018, when the emails were sent. He was the Raiders’ coach when the team moved in 2020 to Las Vegas from Oakland, California. He is seeking compensation for damages, alleging that the selective disclosure of emails and their publication ruined his career and sponsorship contracts. Gruden coached the Raiders in Oakland from 1998 to 2001, and then led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for seven years, winning a Super Bowl title in 2003. After his time at ESPN, he was hired by the Raiders in 2018. He consulted for the New Orleans Saints in 2023. He is currently a co-owner and consultant for the Nashville Kats of the Arena Football One league.Jon Gruden’s lawsuit, his attempt to unfairly blame the NFL and its commissioner for the consequences of the racist, misogynistic, and homophobic emails that Gruden wrote and widely distributed, is based solely on unsubstantiated allegations that fail as a matter of law or fail to state a claim, and should have been dismissed quickly when the NFL Parties first moved.
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