Former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden has sued commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL, claiming that a “planned and malicious set-up” was staged to destroy his career by publicly releasing his old offensive emails.
Posted Nov 12, 2021
Josh Dubow
Associated Press
The lawsuit was filed in Clark County, Nevada, District Court on Thursday, exactly one month after Gruden resigned as head coach of the Raiders following the publication of his emails by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
These emails sent to former Washington football team manager Bruce Allen between 2011 and 2018, when Gruden was an ESPN analyst, contained racist, misogynistic and homophobic comments. They are taken from a total of 650,000 emails collected during an investigation into the corporate culture of the Washington football team.
Gruden’s attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner, said in a statement that the defendant “chose to sink at Wall Street Journal and at New York Times some private emails from Gruden to tarnish his reputation and force him to resign.”
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy denied the allegations.
“These allegations are totally false and the NFL will relentlessly challenge them,” McCarthy said.