Former NFL coach Jon Gruden appears in court in May 2022 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
The nearly four-year-old lawsuit filed by former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden against the NFL may be resolved in a courtroom after all. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Monday that Gruden’s lawsuit can be heard in court rather than through the NFL’s arbitration process.
The 5-2 majority decision by the full court reversed a ruling last year by a three-judge panel of the same court that would have sent the case to the league’s arbitration. Gruden initially had prevailed on that issue at the district court level in 2022.
The NFL could appeal the latest ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The league did not immediately comment Monday.
Gruden’s lawsuit, filed in November 2021, accuses the league and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell of using leaked emails to “publicly sabotage Gruden’s career” and pressure him into resigning from his job in October 2021.
Since then, the parties have battled over whether the case will be heard in court or sent to NFL arbitration under a clause in Gruden’s contract.
“We’re very pleased with the Nevada Supreme Court’s decision, not just for Coach Gruden but for all employees facing an employer’s unfair arbitration process,” attorney Adam Hosmer-Henner of McDonald Carano LLP, which represents Gruden, said in a written statement Monday. “This victory further vindicates Coach Gruden’s reputation, and it clears the way to swiftly bringing him full justice and holding the NFL accountable.”
The court wrote in its ruling Monday: “We conclude the arbitration clause in the NFL Constitution is unconscionable and does not apply to Gruden as a former employee. Nor, in the circumstances presented here, can the NFL Parties claim equitable estoppel to enforce the arbitration clause in Gruden’s coaching contract with the Raiders. Because the NFL Parties cannot compel Gruden to arbitrate, we [affirm the district court’s original ruling].”
Equitable estoppel would have allowed the NFL, as a non-signatory to Gruden’s contract with the Raiders, to enforce the arbitration clause in it.
District Judge Nancy L. Allf initially allowed Gruden’s lawsuit to proceed. At a May 2022 hearing, Allf, who is now retired, denied separate motions by the NFL to dismiss the case or force it into arbitration.
That was reversed in May 2024 by a ruling of two the judges on the three-judge panel from the state Supreme Court that considered the NFL’s appeal.
“Gruden agreed to the terms of the NFL Constitution arbitration clause, he concedes that the clause is a valid agreement to arbitrate disputes between him and the NFL Parties, and the presumption in favor of arbitration puts this dispute within the scope of that clause. … We therefore conclude that Gruden must submit to arbitration under the NFL Constitution arbitration clause,” Justice Elissa F. Cadish, then the chief justice, and Justice Kristina Pickering wrote then.
Pickering wrote a dissenting opinion in Monday’s ruling, with which Cadish expressed agreement. Pickering wrote Monday that she would “enforce the NFL Constitution’s arbitration provision.”
Gruden’s lawsuit alleges that the league and Goodell utilized “a Soviet-style character assassination” against him. It was filed in the 8th Judicial District Court in Clark County, Nevada.
“Through a malicious and orchestrated campaign, the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell sought to destroy the career and reputation of Jon Gruden, the former head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders,” Gruden’s attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.
Gruden resigned following reports that he used racist, homophobic and misogynistic language in emails over a span of approximately seven years before he agreed to return to the NFL in 2018 as coach of the Raiders. The emails were sent to Bruce Allen, the former president of Washington’s NFL team, and others while Gruden worked for ESPN. The emails were gathered as part of an NFL investigation led by attorney Beth Wilkinson of the franchise’s workplace under former team owner Daniel Snyder.
The NFL has denied leaking the emails. The league said in a filing to the district court that Gruden “has no one to blame but himself” for any damage that he incurred. The league wrote then that Gruden “primarily assumed the risk” that his emails could be “possessed and distributed” by the Washington team, among others.
Snyder sold the Commanders in 2023 to a group led by private equity investor Josh Harris for $6.05 billion. Snyder’s wife, Tanya, the team’s former co-CEO, told fellow NFL franchise owners during a league meeting in October 2021 that the email leaks did not originate with her or her husband, multiple people familiar with the situation said at the time.