Jon Gruden, who resigned as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders on Oct. 11, filed a lawsuit against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell back in November, alleging that the accused parties sought to ruin his career by releasing private emails in which Gruden used racist, homophobic and misogynistic terms. Gruden and his legal team claimed that he was “forced to resign” from his position with the Raiders after the NFL allegedly threatened to leak more documents if he was not fired.
Yesterday was the NFL’s due date to respond to Gruden’s lawsuit, and they did so in a big way.
The NFL released a statement saying the case “should be dismissed for failure to state a single viable cause of action.” The league also denied leaking Gruden’s emails, saying that those records became public “through no fault of the NFL Parties.”
“Even if the NFL Parties had made the disclosures—which they did not—providing truthful and accurate information to the press cannot constitute intentional interference under settled law,” the league wrote, per Washington Post NFL insider Mark Maske.
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The NFL concluded that Jon Gruden deserved whatever punishment came his way after the New York Times uncovered a troubling history of emails using sexist, homophobic and racist language.
“In sum, to the extent that Jon Gruden suffered any damage, he has no one to blame but himself. For the reasons set forth above and in detail below, the Complaint should be dismissed in its entirety.”
Gruden resigned on Oct. 11 after leading Las Vegas to a 3-2 start in the fourth season of his second stint with the franchise.
