Former Raiders HC Jon Gruden sues NFL, Roger Goodell over loss of job

Shortly after former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden resigned from that post last month after reports confirmed that an investigation of the Washington Football Team uncovered he had used racist, homophobic and misogynistic language in emails sent from 2010 through 2018, Raiders owner Mark Davis may or may not have suggested in brief comments he believed Gruden and his club were singled out. 

Gruden vowed later in October that "the truth will come out," and it was learned Friday he's suing the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell over his departure from the Raiders. 

"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," attorney Adam Hosmer-Henner of McDonald Carano said in a statement shared by ESPN. "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."

As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk noted, this lawsuit could ultimately reveal exactly who leaked the emails and also the reasoning for doing so.

Meanwhile, league spokesman Brian McCarthy issued a response to PFT regarding the lawsuit. 

"The allegations are entirely meritless and the NFL will vigorously defend against these claims," reads that statement. 

"When their initial salvo did not result in Gruden’s firing or resignation, Defendants ratcheted up the pressure by intimating that further documents would become public if Gruden was not fired," the lawsuit continues, according to David Ferrara of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "They followed through with this threat by leaking another batch of documents to the New York Times for an October 11, 2021 article. On October 7, 2021, Jon Gruden was the head coach of the Raiders on a 10-year, $100-million contract. By October 11, 2021, he had been forced to resign."