The National Football League responded on Wednesday to the lawsuit filed by ex-Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden.
Gruden was fired by the Raiders earlier this season when past emails using racist tropes and offensive language were leaked to the Wall Street Journal.
The former Las Vegas Raiders head coach filed a lawsuit against the NFL following his firing, alleging that the league leaked the emails themselves.
The NFL has reportedly filed two different motions in response to the lawsuit; one being to dismiss the lawsuit on merits and the other being to force the litigation into arbitration.
The NFL moves to dismiss Jon Gruden’s lawsuit, ridiculing it as illogical and devoid of plausible legal claims. Stay tuned for a story on @Sportico. pic.twitter.com/4kt02lkJDo
— Michael McCann (@McCannSportsLaw) January 20, 2022
Pro Football Talk had more details on the response:
The motion calls Gruden’s claims a “made-up conspiracy theory” that the league leaked Gruden’s emails to Washington executive Bruce Allen in an effort to hurt Gruden. More specifically, the NFL argues that the truth of the information disseminated by the league is a defense to any claims of intentional interference with his business relationships, that the NFL was not prohibited from disclosing emails he voluntarily sent to Allen, and that Gruden has not sufficiently alleged that the NFL engaged in any type of actionable negligence.
The separate motion to compel arbitration focuses on Gruden’s employment contract and the NFL’s Constitution and Bylaws. The argument is simple; the league believes Gruden doesn’t have the right to pursue his claims in court.
That’s not all, though.
According to The Athletic, the league has alleged that Gruden sent offensive electronic correspondences to at least six people.
“Gruden sent a variety of similarly abhorrent emails to a half dozen recipients over a seven-year period, in which he denounced `the emergence of women as referees,’ and frequently used homophobic and sexist slurs to refer to Commissioner Goodell, then-Vice President Joseph Biden, a gay professional football player drafted in 2014, and others,” the NFL wrote.
The NFL has filed in Nevada state court to move Jon Gruden’s lawsuit over his leaked emails to arbitration, divulging that the ex-coach also sent offensive electronic correspondences to at least six people.https://t.co/D7xS4hTx8l
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) January 20, 2022
The Raiders’ players, meanwhile, appeared to play better in the absence of their now-former head coach, making the playoffs.
An anonymous Raiders veteran credited the absence of Jon Gruden for the team’s success in the second half of the season 👀 pic.twitter.com/g1Rx3QzIeC
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) January 19, 2022
Las Vegas lost to Cincinnati in the Wild Card round on Saturday night. The Raiders are now looking to hire a full-time head coach.
Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh could be that man…
Jim Harbaugh will likely take the Raiders HC job if offered per @BruceFeldmanCFB pic.twitter.com/VX2oeBGdW3
— PFF (@PFF) January 20, 2022
It’s been quite a couple of months for the Raiders and it looks like it’s only going to get more interesting from here.
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