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Former head coach Jon Gruden wants the truth to come out after there were allegations that the NFL and Roger Goodell leaked emails that he sent out before he had to resign as the Raiders head coach in 2021. Gruden recently broke his silence about the legal battle and hopes that this is something that doesn't happen to others in the future.
“I'm looking forward to having the truth come out and I want to make sure what happened to me doesn't happen to anyone else,” Gruden said in a statement to ESPN.
Gruden believes the NFL forced the Raiders' hand to release him by leaking the emails.
“The league's actions disrupted the whole season,” Gruden said. “We were leading the division at the time, and they completely blindsided me and the team.
“What happened wasn't right and I'm glad the court didn't let the NFL cover it up.”
The emails were published by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times in October 2021, and they showed Gruden using racist, sexist, and anti-gay language in a message sent to Bruce Allen, who was the general manager of the Washington Commanders at the time.
It was during the time that the league was doing an investigation into the Commanders' toxic work environment that the emails were leaked. Gruden thinks the emails were leaked, so he was forced to resign as the Raiders' head coach, as they were 3-1 at the time.
The Nevada Supreme Court ruled in favor of Gruden with a 5-2 decision, after the NFL tried to make a bid to dismiss his claims or to order the out-of-court talks through an arbitration process that could be overseen by Goodell. The Supreme Court ruled in the decision that “the arbitration clause in the NFL Constitution is unconscionable and does not apply to Gruden as a former employee.”
Gruden's lawyer, Adam Hosmer-Henner, expressed gratification that the Nevada Supreme Court blocked Goodell from overseeing an arbitration proceeding.
“The NFL's legal position is absurd and will continue to be rejected by every court,” Hosmer-Henner said to ESPN. “Obviously, the NFL should not be allowed to be the judge of claims against the NFL or force people to comply with contracts that the NFL can unilaterally change any time it wants without notice.”
