Jon Gruden Suing NFL & Commissioner Roger Goodell

Update:

The NFL issued the following statement regarding the lawsuit from former Raiders HC Jon Gruden: 

“The allegations are entirely meritless and the NFL will vigorously defend against these claims.”

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David Ferrara of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that former Raiders HC Jon Gruden is suing the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell.

Gruden resigned as Raiders head coach last month after racist, misogynistic and homophobic emails surfaced.

“Through a malicious and orchestrated campaign, the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell sought to destroy the career and reputation of Jon Gruden, the former head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders,” the lawsuit filed Thursday in Clark County District Court stated.

Gruden’s lawyers claim that he was “forced to resign.”

“When their initial salvo did not result in Gruden’s firing or resignation, Defendants ratcheted up the pressure by intimating that further documents would become public if Gruden was not fired,” the lawsuit states. “They followed through with this threat by leaking another batch of documents to the New York Times for an October 11, 2021 article. On October 7, 2021, Jon Gruden was the head coach of the Raiders on a 10-year, $100-million contract. By October 11, 2021, he had been forced to resign.”

Gruden’s lawsuit refered to it as “a Soviet-style character assassination. There was no warning and no process. Defendants held the emails for months until they were leaked to the national media in the middle of the Raiders’ season … to cause maximum damage to Gruden.”

Reports said that legal action could be coming from Gruden, so this shouldn’t come as a big surprise. 

Gruden’s emails surfaced as part of the investigation into workplace misconduct involving the Washington Football Team. Gruden had been emailing former Washington president Bruce Allen over the course of several years. 

The NFL has denied that they were responsible for the leaked emails, but they have also made it clear that they will not make the findings of their investigation into the Washington Football Team public. 

We’ll have more regarding Gruden and the NFL as the news is available.