'Unconscionable': Ex-Raiders coach Jon Gruden blasts NFL over request to move lawsuit to arbitration
Former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden filed a pair of oppositions in a Nevada court Friday in which he blasted the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell over its "unconscionable" request to move Gruden's lawsuit to arbitration.
Gruden also said the NFL appeared "quite foolish" to use claims of racism against him, now that the league is facing a lawsuit from former Miami Dolphins head coach and current Steelers defensive assistant Brian Flores that alleges racism in its hiring practices. The Dolphins fired Flores in January, despite his 8-1 finish to the 2021 season.
"These statements were nothing more than hollow corporate speak when made on January 19, 2022," Gruden argues in one of the oppositions, "but they appear quite foolish now after the torrent of revelations against the NFL and Goodell that have recently come to light."
Both oppositions were submitted Friday in Clark County District Court. Aside from the one that was against the NFL's motion to move the case to arbitration, the other was an opposition to the motion the NFL filed to dismiss the suit.
USA TODAY Sports obtained a copy of both.
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Gruden resigned as the head coach of the Raiders Oct. 11 after The New York Times revealed excerpts of his emails, which contained homophobic and misogynistic language. The emails were sent between 2011 and 2018 and obtained by the NFL as part of an unrelated investigation.
The Times reported that, among other things, Gruden used a homophobic slur to describe Goodell, denigrated one team's decision to draft a gay player, mocked transgender woman Caitlyn Jenner, deprecated female referees and suggested that a player who kneeled during the national anthem should be fired.
Under the NFL's constitution and bylaws, Goodell could theoretically serve as the arbitrator in a case that is deemed to involve conduct detrimental to the league. Gruden's opposition to the NFL's request for arbitration claims that "unconscionable does not begin to describe this structure" because of the power it would grant to Goodell, one of the defendants in the case.
The opposition against the motion to move the case to arbitration also reiterated Gruden's allegations that Goodell was directly involved in leaking knowledge of the emails to media outlets and that "the Commissioner demanded through backchannel phone calls that the Raiders fire Gruden."
In the opposition against arbitration, Gruden and his attorneys argue that the case "is neither about Gruden’s emails nor about the NFL’s public policies or positions" but instead about the allegations that the league coerced the Raiders to fire Gruden under the threat that more emails would be leaked.
The Wall Street Journal separately reported in October that Gruden used a racist trope when describing NFL Players' Association executive director DeMaurice Smith in a 2011 email.
The NFL obtained Gruden's emails as part of an unrelated investigation into the culture of the Washington Commanders under owner Daniel Snyder – a probe that resulted in a $10 million fine for the team, but no written report detailing the transgressions that investigators uncovered.
Gruden was an analyst for ESPN when he sent the emails to Bruce Allen's official team account. Allen served in various high-ranking executive positions with the Commanders at the time.
Contributing: Tom Schad and Mike Jones
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jon Gruden: Ex-Raiders coach calls NFL 'unconscionable' over request
