The Nevada Supreme Court returned Jon Gruden’s case to the state’s District Court on Thursday, while the NFL filed two motions seeking the prompt dismissal of the claims against it.
Gruden resigned as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders in October 2021 after the publication of emails he sent years earlier that included racist, misogynistic, and homophobic language. A month later, he sued the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell, alleging a “malicious and orchestrated campaign” to destroy his career by leaking the emails.
In a motion filed Thursday and obtained by The Associated Press, NFL attorneys used aggressive language to counter Gruden’s allegations, stating:
“The Complaint—Jon Gruden’s attempt to wrongly blame the NFL and its Commissioner for the consequences of the racist, misogynistic, and homophobic emails Gruden authored and widely distributed—hinges solely on unsupported allegations that fail as a matter of law or fall far short of stating a claim, and should have been promptly dismissed when the NFL Parties first so moved.”
Previously, the Nevada Supreme Court denied the league’s earlier appeal of its August 11 ruling that Gruden could proceed with his lawsuit and was not required to go through the league’s arbitration process.
The NFL’s attorneys further argued in the motion:
“Gruden does not and cannot dispute that he wrote the emails that led to his resignation. He does not and cannot dispute that he freely sent those emails to multiple parties. He does not and cannot claim that the emails were misleadingly edited or altered in any way, let alone by the NFL Parties, or that the views espoused in them were not in fact expressed by him. Instead, Gruden has concocted a fictional story that attempts to paint himself as the victim of his own conduct.”
The motion to dismiss also invokes Nevada’s anti-SLAPP statute, which protects against lawsuits intended to silence those exercising their First Amendment rights. NFL attorneys emphasized:
“Gruden’s false claims are all premised on quintessential First Amendment activity: the NFL Parties’ alleged communication of unaltered emails authored by Gruden, a public figure, to the national media. And because those claims have no basis in law or fact, the complaint cannot survive under the anti-SLAPP statute.”
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 high court, in a 5-2 ruling, stated that “the arbitration clause in the NFL Constitution is unconscionable and does not apply to Gruden as a former employee.”
Background on Jon Gruden: He was an on-air analyst for ESPN from 2011 to 2018, during the period when the controversial emails were sent. Gruden served as the Raiders’ coach when the team moved to Las Vegas from Oakland, California, in 2020.
He is seeking monetary damages, alleging that the selective disclosure and publication of the emails by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times ruined his career and endorsement contracts.
Gruden’s coaching career includes two stints with the Raiders—first in Oakland from 1998 to 2001, and later in Las Vegas starting in 2018. He also led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for seven years, winning a Super Bowl title in 2003. After his coaching and broadcasting roles, he consulted for the New Orleans Saints in 2023.
Currently, Jon Gruden is a part-owner and consultant for the Nashville Kats of the Arena Football One league.
http://lasvegassun.com//news/2025/oct/23/nfl-seeks-dismissal-of-jon-grudens-lawsuit-after-n/
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