The National Football League is geraing up for a war in the courtroom.
Former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden filed a lawsuit against the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell in the wake of his private emails being leaked amid an investigation into the Washington Football Team. Gruden’s attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner of McDonald Carano, said at the time: “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,” Hosmer-Henner said. “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.”
The lawsuit claimed the NFL pressured the Raiders to terminate Gruden and “intimated that further documents would become public if Gruden was not fired.”
Fast forward to the beginning of the new year and the league has reportedly brought in powerhouse litigator Brad Karp and the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to defend the league in the Jon Gruden lawsuit.
“JUST IN: The NFL has brought in powerhouse litigator Brad Karp and the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to defend the league in the Jon Gruden lawsuit. Karp was lead counsel in the concussion case & Paul Weiss wrote the investigative report in Deflategate.”
“The NFL is obviously gearing up for the discovery battle for the ages. At stake: 650,000 emails from the WFT investigation and testimony from Roger Goodell and Dan Snyder.”
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In the wake of his firing, Gruden lost a sponsorship deal with Skechers and was pulled from appearing in the Madden NFL 2022 video game.
In November, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy called Gruden’s allegations “entirely meritless” and said the league “will vigorously defend against these claims.”
Gruden is seeking unspecified damages on seven claims as well as punitive awards and attorneys’ fees.
