Jon Gruden Is Suing the NFL and Roger Goodell
Jon Gruden made an unceremonious exit from the NFL several weeks ago when it was revealed he used racist, misogynistic and homophobic language in emails. He immediately resigned from the Las Vegas Raiders walking away from the six years and $60 million left on his deal. Not content to just go away for a while and lick his wounds, Gruden has targeted the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell with a new lawsuit.
Former #Raiders coach Jon Gruden is suing the NFL and Roger Goodell in Nevada district court, alleging they sought to destroy Gruden’s career and reputation through a “malicious and orchestrated campaign” that led to his resignation last month, Gruden’s attorney tells me.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 12, 2021
Gruden’s lawsuit refers to it as “a Soviet-style character assassination. 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 ... to cause maximum damage to Gruden.”
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 12, 2021
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Gruden did plenty to assassinate his own character by sending those emails? is it a "Soviet-style" character assassination when you do it to yourself? It will also be incredibly difficult for his lawyers to prove the NFL and Goodell were behind the leak of those communications and did so with malicious intent. In cases like this, what you feel and what you know to be true are irrelevant, all that matters is what you can prove.
Gruden's lawyers have a point that the rest of the 650,000 emails collected during the NFL's investigation of the Washington Football Team weren't released. To save itself the headache of this lawsuit, the league could just go ahead and release all the communications. Or at least more of them.
If this gets to the discovery phase there might be some things revealed that are seriously uncomfortable for the NFL. Maybe the league will decide to settle and avoid that potential.