Jon Gruden Loses Court Ruling

Case denied

A three-justice panel split 2-1, saying the league can force the civil case out of state court and into private arbitration that might be overseen by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Gruden’s attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner, said he will appeal to the full seven-member state high court to hear the case.

“The panel’s split decision would leave Nevada an outlier. Where an employer can unilaterally determine whether an employee’s dispute must go to arbitration. Also allow the employer to adjudicate the dispute as the arbitrator,” the attorney said.

Attorney Kannon Shanmugam, representing the NFL, declined to comment on the ruling.

Gruden’s lawsuit, filed in November 2021. Alleges the league forced him into resigning from the Raiders by leaking racist, sexist and homophobic emails that he sent many years earlier, when he was at ESPN.

The panel majority, Justices Elissa Cadish and Kristina Pickering, said Gruden “expressly acknowledged” in his contract with the Raiders that he understood the NFL constitution allowed for arbitration to resolve disputes.

Gruden was the Raiders head coach when the team moved in 2020 from Oakland to Las Vegas. He left the team with more than six seasons remaining on his record 10-year, $100 million contract. Raiders owner Mark Davis later said the team reached a settlement with Gruden over the final years of his contract. The terms were not disclosed.