Jon Gruden Suing Roger Goodell, NFL over Circumstances Around Raiders Resignation

Former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden is suing the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell over the circumstances that resulted in his resignation from the team. 

Gruden's attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner, told NFL Network's Tom Pelissero the complaint filed in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Clark County, Nevada on Thursday alleges that the league 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 his job."

NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy provided a statement about the lawsuit to Pelissero: "The allegations are entirely meritless and the NFL will vigorously defend against these claims."

On Oct. 8, Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal reported that Gruden used a racist trope to describe DeMaurice Smith, executive director of the NFL Players Association, in a 20111 email to then-Washington Football Team president Bruce Allen. 

Gruden was working as a television analyst for ESPN's Monday Night Football in 2011. 

Three days later, Ken Belson and Katherine Rosman of The New York Times reported on a series of emails from Gruden in which he "casually and frequently unleashed misogynistic and homophobic language over several years to denigrate people around the game and to mock some of the league’s momentous changes."

Gruden resigned as Raiders head coach on Oct. 11 after the New York Times report came out.   

The emails detailed in both reports stemmed from a separate investigation the NFL was conducting into allegations of a toxic workplace culture involving the Washington Football Team. 

Beaton noted Gruden's emails were among 650,000 that were reviewed by the league during the investigation. 

The NFL fined Washington $10 million in July after concluding its review of the organization. 

Despite calls to publicly release the results of the investigation, Goodell told reporters he wouldn't do so in order to protect the anonymity of the people who came forward with the allegations.

Per Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports, the league opted to have lead attorney Beth Wilkinson not provide a written report of her findings in the Washington investigation, instead opting for Goodell "to hear the news through oral reports and verbal findings."

Per ESPN's John Keim, attorneys for multiple former Football Team employees sent a letter to Goodell stating they wanted a written report of the findings and they "would not have participated" in the investigation if they had known no written record was being kept. 

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform announced on Oct. 21 it was seeking information about the investigation and the league's handling of it. 

Gruden was hired as head coach of the Raiders in January 2018. He began his head-coaching career with the organization in 1998, and remained with them for four seasons before being traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the 2001 campaign.