NFL appeals court ruling allowing Jon Gruden’s lawsuit to proceed

LAS VEGAS — The NFL will appeal the Nevada Supreme Court’s ruling Monday that former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden can proceed with his lawsuit and not go through the league for arbitration.

The league will request a rehearing from the same court that overturned a prior Nevada Supreme Court panel ruling in May 2024 that the matter could go to arbitration. But in October, Gruden was granted a hearing by the full court.

Gruden filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell, alleging that a “malicious and orchestrated campaign” to destroy his career by leaking old emails he sent that included racist, misogynistic and homophobic comments that pressured the Raiders to fire him.

Gruden resigned from the Raiders in October 2021 and sued the league a month later.

In 2022, the NFL appealed to Nevada’s high court after a judge in Las Vegas rejected league bids to dismiss Gruden’s claim outright or to order out-of-court talks through an arbitration process that could be overseen by Goodell.

The Nevada Supreme Court, in a 5-2 ruling, said Monday that “the arbitration clause in the NFL Constitution is unconscionable and does not apply to Gruden as a former employee.”

Gruden was an on-air analyst at ESPN from 2011-18 when the emails were sent.

He was the Raiders coach when the team moved in 2020 to Las Vegas from Oakland, California. He’s seeking monetary damages, saying that selective disclosure of the emails and their publication by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times ruined his career and endorsement contracts.

Gruden coached the Raiders in Oakland from 1998 to 2001, then led the Bucs for seven years, winning a Super Bowl title in 2003. He spent several years as a TV analyst for ESPN before being hired by the Raiders again in 2018.

As part of the email fallout, the Bucs removed Gruden from the team’s Ring of Honor a day after he resigned as Raiders coach in 2021. But this past February, the Bucs announced they were reinstating Gruden, 61, to the Ring of Honor, four years after they removed his name.

He later consulted for the New Orleans Saints in 2023. He is now a part-owner and consultant for the Nashville Kats, a team in the Arena Football One league.

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