Jon Gruden resigned from the Las Vegas Raiders, but he is not resigned to go away quietly.
The former Raiders head coach filed a lawsuit Thursday in Las Vegas against the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell, accusing the league of “selectively leaking” the old racist, homophobic and sexist emails Gruden sent to former Washington Football Team president Bruce Allen. The suit alleged the leaks were a “malicious and orchestrated campaign” to destroy Gruden’s career.
The suit was filed in district court in Clark County, Nev., exactly a month after Gruden resigned as Raiders coach following the publication of his emails by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, which directly led to his resignation.
“The complaint alleges that the defendants selectively leaked Gruden’s private correspondence to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times in order to harm Gruden’s reputation and force him out of his job,” Gruden’s attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner, said in a statement. “There is no explanation or justification for why Gruden’s emails were the only ones made public out of the 650,000 emails collected in the NFL’s investigation of the Washington Football Team or for why the emails were held for months before being released in the middle of the Raiders’ season.”
The suit accused Goodell and the league of “Soviet-style character assassination” tactics.
“In contrast to the formalities of the Washington Football Team investigation, Defendants’ treatment of Gruden was a Soviet-style character assassination,” the lawsuit alleges. “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 in order to cause maximum damage to Gruden.”
The league denied Gruden’s accusations.
“The allegations are entirely meritless and the NFL will vigorously defend against these claims,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement.
Gruden’s emails — sent from 2011 to 2018 during his time as an announcer at ESPN — were part of an NFL investigation into the workplace culture of the Washington franchise. The team was fined $10 million, and team owner Dan Snyder’s wife, Tanya Snyder, was installed as co-CEO.
The messages were sent before Gruden became coach of the Raiders for a second time (the first was 1998-2001). They included calling Goodell a “f—-t” who shouldn’t have pressured former Rams head coach Jeff Fisher into drafting “queers,” a reference to the Rams’ selection of Michael Sam in the seventh round in 2014.
Gruden also used racial stereotypes to describe NFLPA director DeMaurice Smith. “Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michellin [sic] tires,” and responded to a meme of a female referee with “nice job roger.” Gruden also wrote that Panthers defensive back Eric Reid should have been fired for kneeling during the national anthem.
The suit alleges the NFL pressured the Raiders to fire Gruden after the release of the old emails and “intimated that further documents would become public if Gruden was not fired.”
“I love the Raiders and do not want to be a distraction,” Gruden said in a statement when he resigned on Oct. 11. “Thank you to all the players, coaches, staff, and fans of Raider Nation. I’m sorry, I never meant to hurt anyone.”
Raiders owner Mark Davis said last month that he had reached a settlement with Gruden over the final six-plus years of his contract. Davis did not reveal the terms of the settlement.
The lawsuit said Gruden lost a sponsorship deal with Skechers, was pulled from appearing in the Madden NFL 2022 video game and has had future employment and endorsement prospects damaged.
Gruden is seeking unspecified damages on seven claims, as well as punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.
— With AP