Gruden sues NFL, says leaked emails cost him Raiders job

Former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden is suing the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell, alleging that they leaked his emails as part of a campaign to destroy his name and his career.

Gruden’s emails were released to the media in the wake of an investigation into reports of how women were mistreated in the Washington Football Team workplace.

Media reports on Gruden correspondence

The Wall Street Journal reported in early October that Gruden had used racist language in the exchanges to describe NFL Players Association chief DeMaurice Smith. A few days later, The New York Times published other emails from him that contained misogynist and anti-LGBTQ remarks.

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The correspondence spanned an interval of seven years while Gruden was working as an ESPN commentator, and involved then-president of the Washington Football Team, Bruce Allen, among others.

Gruden resigned from his post as Raiders coach shortly after the news reports came out. He was on a 10-year, $100 million contract with the team.

'Soviet-style character assassination'

A statement from Gruden’s lawyer, Adam Hosmer-Henner says the NFL and Goodell “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 a job.”

“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.”

"The lawsuit contends that the release of the emails amounted to “a Soviet-style character assassination. 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… to cause maximum damage to Gruden.”

NFL denies allegations

NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy says Gruden’s accusations are baseless, and that the league “will vigorously defend against these claims.”

The NFLPA and the US Congress are among those who have called on the NFL to be more transparent about the Washington investigation and release the rest of the emails.

The NFL has rejected these requests, claiming they wanted to protect the privacy of those who came forward in the investigation. Former employees of the Washington Football Team who were involved in the probe, however, are also demanding that the results of the inquiry be made public.