Why Saints consultation could hurt Jon Gruden’s lawsuit against NFL

Jon Gruden has a pending lawsuit against the NFL in which he claims that his “future employment prospects and endorsement opportunities” were negatively affected by a series of leaked emails by the New York Times where Gruden used misogynistic, racist and anti-LGBTQ language between 2011 and 2018 when he worked as an analyst for ESPN.

Gruden also may have disproved his own argument in that lawsuit after working with the New Orleans Saints a few weeks ago to help ease quarterback Derek Carr into the team’s new offensive system. 

“Gruden’s involvement with the Saints seems to shows that his reputation isn’t so damaged that he’s unable to work alongside or with other NFL teams,” attorney Dan Lust told Front Office Sports.

The lawsuit is currently before the Nevada Supreme Court with the NFL lobbying to have the case sent to arbitration, where NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would be the sole arbitrator—something the league says Gruden agreed to when he signed his 10-year, $100 million contract with the Raiders in 2019. Gruden argued that he’s not bound by that provision since he resigned and accepted a settlement from the team.

Gruden’s legal team claims that the NFL was the source of the leaked emails and it then pressured the Las Vegas Raiders to fire the 59-year-old head coach after the subsequent PR nightmare that followed.

The NFL, which has denied leaking any emails related to Gruden, now has to prove it wasn’t the source of the email leak. Gruden’s representation has to prove that the email leaks damaged his potential job prospects.