Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden alleges in a lawsuit that the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell sought to destroy his career and reputation through a malicious and orchestrated campaign.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Clark County, Nevada District Court.
Gruden resigned in October as head coach of the Raiders after reports emerged of him using homophobic, racist and misogynistic language in emails while he worked as an ESPN analyst.
“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,” Gruden’s attorney Adam Hosmer-Henner said in a statement. “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.”
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told CNN in a statement, “The allegations are entirely meritless and the NFL will vigorously defend against these claims.”
The suit claims the NFL’s actions have led to Gruden suffering from “severe financial damages and harm to his career and reputation.”
Though the source of the leaked emails is unknown, the lawsuit claims they were leaked by the NFL and alleges the league deliberately sought to hurt Gruden while other details of the investigation into the Washington football team were kept secret.
“In contrast to the formalities of the Washington Football Team investigation, Defendants’ treatment of Gruden was a Soviet-style character assassination,” the lawsuit says. “There was no warning and no process. Defendants held the emails for months until they were leaked to the national media in the middle of the Raiders’ season in order to cause maximum damage to Gruden.”
Read more about Gruden’s lawsuit against the NFL:
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Author: David Keech
David Keech is a retired teacher and works as a sportswriter, sports official and as an educational consultant. He has reported on amateur sports since 2011, known as 'KeechDaVoice.' David can be reached at [email protected]
