Jon Gruden’s bid for the Nevada Supreme Court to reconsider whether his lawsuit against the NFL over leaked emails should be heard in court or in private arbitration was denied by a three-justice panel.
It remains unclear whether Gruden will seek a hearing before the entire seven-member state high court following this decision.
The backstory: Gruden filed a lawsuit in November 2021, alleging that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league influenced his resignation from the Las Vegas Raiders by leaking racist, sexist, and homophobic emails he sent years earlier when he was at ESPN.
The big picture: A May 14 decision by the three-justice panel allowed the league to move the civil contract interference and conspiracy case out of state court and into arbitration, potentially overseen by Goodell or a designated third-party arbitrator.
- The lawsuit contends that the selective disclosure and publication of the emails by media outlets destroyed Gruden’s career, leading to the loss of endorsement contracts and monetary damages, and is seeking legal recourse for these damages.
- The leaked emails were sent from 2011 to 2018 to former Washington Commanders executive Bruce Allen as part of a workplace culture investigation of the Washington team, and were found among approximately 650,000 emails obtained by the NFL.
- Gruden, the former head coach for the Raiders, left the team in November 2021 with over six seasons remaining on his 10-year, $100 million contract, after the emails were leaked.
