According to reports, Jon Gruden’s lawyers have made some serious allegations against the NFL claiming the body pressured the Las Vegas Raiders to fire the coach in 2021.
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Gruden and the NFL have been locked in a legal battle since November, when the former coach sued the league and Goodell, claiming that the league leaked derogatory emails he wrote in an attempt to ruin his career and reputation.
Gruden resigned as coach the month before the lawsuit, after The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times published racist, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ emails he had written.
The NFL has argued that the league and Goodell “will suffer far greater harm” than Gruden if the lawsuit is not halted, because the lawsuit could be resolved before the appeal over the arbitration process is settled.
Gruden’s attorneys argued in Wednesday’s filing that continuing the lawsuit, which could include moving into the discovery process, should not harm the league because “the same discovery should be required in arbitration.”
Discovery is the formal process of exchanging information between the parties about evidence they intend to present at trial.
“Of course, the NFL Parties cannot respond to this argument because Commissioner Goodell is not even required to afford Gruden the opportunity to conduct discovery,” Gruden’s attorneys wrote.
The filing also accused the league of pressuring the Raiders to fire Gruden, a repeat of previous arguments that the NFL intentionally leaked the emails.
The league has repeatedly denied that the NFL or Goodell leaked the emails, and has disputed Gruden’s claim that the emails that led to his departure were all sent before he signed an agreement with the Raiders.
Gruden says he isn’t getting the money owed to him by the Raiders because of the way he was fired and he has lost out on all his endorsement deals.
Flip to the next page for the emails that were leaked.