In a bit of incredibly predictable news, Jon Gruden has filed a lawsuit in Nevada against the NFL and league commissioner Roger Goodell.
Gruden resigned his position with the Las Vegas Raiders in the wake of emails that leaked as part of an investigation into the Washington Football Team, in which Gruden used racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language (including in reference to NFLPA leader DeMaurice Smith.) At the time of the emails in question, Gruden was working for ESPN’s Monday Night Football booth.
Gruden’s attorney informed reporter Tom Pelissero of the legal maneuver:
Former #Raiders coach Jon Gruden is suing the NFL and Roger Goodell in Nevada district court, alleging they sought to destroy Gruden’s career and reputation through a “malicious and orchestrated campaign” that led to his resignation last month, Gruden’s attorney tells me.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 12, 2021
The suit essentially focuses on the fact that in the wake of the Gruden leaks, the NFL promptly locked down the rest of the Bruce Allen emails, which Gruden’s camp points to as a targeted effort to punish him and protect everyone else involved.
Gruden’s lawsuit refers 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.”
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 12, 2021
The NFL responded as you’d expect, with a short statement saying they’ll contest everything:
Statement from NFL spokesman @nflprguy on Jon Gruden's lawsuit against the league and Commissioner Roger Goodell: "The allegations are entirely meritless and the NFL will vigorously defend against these claims.” https://t.co/pQA1RDJuPe
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 12, 2021
It’s important to note that Gruden absolutely deserved to be forced out in Las Vegas. There’s no doubt about that. But the idea that with a league full of old white men there wouldn’t be anything else along the lines of what Gruden was punished for in those 650,000 emails is a pretty big stretch. It very much felt like the rest of the league’s power brokers realized the exposure they had after the Gruden story broke (and broke quickly; he was gone within days) and decided to cover everyone’s collective ass. (Though it didn’t come in time to prevent Adam Schefter’s “Mr. Editor” story from coming out, which is somehow not even the least embarrassing Schefter news in the last few months.)
On that front, Gruden might have a point, and if the courts agree enough to force the NFL to reopen the emails in question we might see the league settle pretty quickly to prevent the public from seeing the thing they didn’t want the public to see all along.
And hey, this all really sucks! Gruden’s words were abhorrent. The league fostering a culture where language like that gets tossed around at the executive level is gross. The NFL saying “Nothing to see here!” is insulting to everyone, and that they might end up paying someone like Gruden despite Gruden’s actions is distasteful at best, even by Friday news dump standards.