NFL files motions dismissing Jon Gruden’s ‘baseless’ lawsuit: ‘He has no one to blame but himself’
NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell have issued a response to a lawsuit filed by Jon Gruden, who resigned as Raiders head coach in October after objectionable emails emerged.
The league made two offers in a Nevada state court on Wendesday – One motion to refer Gruden’s case to arbitration the other to dismiss the case together.
The NFL argued that under the express terms of Gruden’s employment contract and the NFL’s Constitution and Statutes to which Gruden was bound, “that matters rest with the arbitration.
The disgraced Gruden resigned from his position with the Raiders in October after internal email exchanges with former GM Washington, Bruce Allen and others, of vulgar content, were posted in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
“Gruden sent several similarly abhorrent emails to half a dozen recipients over a seven-year period in which he denounced “the emergence of women as referees’, and frequently used those homophobic and sexist slurs referring to Commissioner Goodell, then Vice President Joseph Biden, a gay professional soccer player drafted in 2014, and others other,” the NFL wrote in a petition filed in Nevada state court Wednesday.
Former Raid Coach sue the NFL on 11 November, argued that the federation had leaked the emails to get him back because of offensive topics he discussed in the exchanges, including that of commissioner Goodell. Gruden’s attorneys argued that the league’s treatment of the former Raiders coach was a “Soviet-style assassination of character.”
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The union’s attorneys also called Gruden’s lawsuit a “baseless attempt” to blame NFL leaders for the backlash after the emails were made public.
“He does not, and cannot, dispute that he sent those emails to multiple parties. Nor does he claim that they were altered or edited in any way and that the views are reprehensible. which is not actually represented by him,” the NFL wrote in motion. “Instead, Gruden filed an Immediate Complaint against the NFL and the Commissioner, painting himself as a victim in a fictitious narrative and monetizing through baseless claims against the NFL.”
“To the extent that Jon Gruden has suffered any damage, he has no one to blame but himself.”
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The league also addressed Gruden’s claims that the NFL had ‘leaked’ the email exchanges, and explained that Goodell had to fire Gruden anyway. Gruden will now have the opportunity to respond to these petitions filed and the case will be brought before the state court of Nevada.
“The crux of Gruden’s Complaint is that somehow the NFL or the Commissioner leaked ‘his non-confidential emails (these emails were in the hands of many Gruden and Gruden recipients with no expectation of mutable on privacy), for some inexplicable reason, destroying his career and ruining his reputation, despite the fact that the emails raised many media stories critical of the League, and also negatively impacting the League and Raiders in the middle of the football season,” the NFL wrote, and “would have and could have allowed the Commissioner himself to sanction and dismiss him Gruden.”
The story continues.
