Jon Gruden vs. NFL: Nevada Supreme Court blocks arbitration, paves way for former coach to sue league

Former NFL coach Jon Gruden got a massive win in his lawsuit against the league. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the case must be litigated in court rather than through arbitration.

Gruden initially sued the league and commissioner Roger Goodell in 2021 for leaking Gruden’s emails to multiple media outlets during an investigation into the Washington franchise. Gruden contended that the emails were leaked to cause his firing as the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.

He initially won before the trial court, but asked for a rehearing after the court ruled that the case would be decided through arbitration. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled in his favor Monday, finding that the NFL’s arbitration clause in its Constitution and Bylaws “is unconscionable and does not apply to Gruden as a former employee.”

The court also refused to prevent Gruden from suing the NFL due to the presence of another arbitration clause in his contract with the Raiders. They stated that arbitration was unconscionable because it  “would allow Goodell, as Commissioner, to arbitrate disputes about his own conduct — exactly what is at issue here.”

This likely isn’t the end, as the NFL still has the option to appeal the ruling and continue to pursue arbitration. If that is the case, this could be dragged out even longer.

Jon Gruden resigned from Raiders in 2021 after leaked emails containing racist, homophobic remarks

A story released by the Wall Street Journal describing an email sent by Gruden back in July of 2011 to have contained the use of a racist trope directed at NFL players of association executive director DeMaurice Smith sparked an investigation and ensuing fallout.

“Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of Michelin tires,” Gruden wrote in the email that has since launched an investigation, per Andrew Beaton of The Wall Street Journal.

Gruden sent the email during a lockout by the players over the 2011 summer. He sent the email after the NFLPA chose not to vote on a collective bargaining agreement ratified by the league’s owners. At the time of the email, Gruden was a color commentator for ESPN. During that time he was one of the analysts for the network’s Monday Night Football telecast.

The emails under review were sent by Gruden to Bruce Allen, the former president of the Washington Football Team, and others while he was working as a color analyst on Monday Night Football.

In his emails, the report details that he used homophobic language and slurs to describe NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, as well as saying Goodell pressured former Los Angeles Rams coach Jeff Fisher to draft “queers.” The New York Times report that Goodell’s comments about Fisher refer to the drafting of Michael Sam, an openly gay player drafted in 2014.

Gruden eventually resigned from the team in the middle of the 2021 season. He claims the league leaked the emails to the Wall Street Journal and other publications to get him fired, and it appears he may get his day in court over the matter.