Jon Gruden’s NFL lawsuit still standing

The former Raiders Coach claims the NFL selectively leaked his emails – and despite their best efforts, the case rumbles on. 

Raiders of the leaked emails 

In October 2021, Jon Gruden was forced to publicly resign from his position in the NFL following a leak of seven years’ worth of his emails. These emails contained racist, homophobic and misogynist comments and language throughout, and were uncovered from a more extensive set of 650,000 emails – part of the NFL’s investigation into workplace misconduct within the Washington Football Team. 

Following this scandal, Gruden announced that he’d be suing the NFL, and Commissioner Roger Goodell, for damages. He claimed the NFL had pressured the Las Vegas Raiders to fire him, threatening them with the release of further emails if they failed to do so. All in all, it’s a real hot mess – and the story is far from over.  

The latest from court 

On Wednesday, the Judge in Gruden’s case heard two motions from the NFL’s attorneys. The first was a motion to compel the case into binding arbitration, and the second was a motion to dismiss, arguing the lawsuit wasn’t viable. 

Through counsel, Commissioner Goodell argued during the second motion that the complaint was “baseless” and called it Gruden’s attempt “to blame the NFL and its commissioner for the fallout from the publication of racist, misogynistic and homophobic emails that Gruden wrote and broadly circulated.” 

Despite their best efforts though, both motions were denied by the judge. Gruden’s case is now clear to proceed through the courts, and the discovery process can begin. The ball is back in the court of the NFL, who have a big call to make: Settle, or go in for round two.