By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The man expected to be the face of the Raiders franchise in Las Vegas under a decade-long contract has sued the NFL and its commissioner for creating a “malicious and orchestrated campaign” designed “to destroy the career and reputation of Jon Gruden,” according to the former Raiders coach’s lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court yesterday.
The legal document alleges the defendants — the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell — deployed a “Soviet-style character assassination” of leaked Gruden emails to national media that was designed to force him to resign. Gruden quit on Oct. 11, when more Gruden emails were publicized that were sexist, anti-gay and mean-spirited. At the time that he resigned, Gruden said through the Raiders, “I love the Raiders and do not want to be a distraction. Thank you to all the players, coaches, staff, and fans of Raider Nation. I’m sorry, I never meant to hurt anyone.”
Just three days earlier on Oct. 8, news broke Gruden wrote a racist email 10 years ago while working as an ESPN Monday Night Football broadcaster. Gruden wrote the email to his friend, Bruce Allen, then the Washington Football Team president, that NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, who is Black, “has lips the size of michellin [sic] tires.” Gruden coached the Raiders Oct. 10 in a loss to the Chicago Bears two days after the first email was public and the next day he resigned after more toxic emails from Gruden to Allen surfaced in the media. Gruden’s private emails to Allen were among 650,000 collected by the NFL during its probe into workplace problems of the Washington Football Team.
Gruden was in the middle of a 10-year, $100 million head coach contract with the Raiders. Owner Mark Davis is a close friend of Gruden. Gruden was the face of the franchise in Las Vegas as the Raiders moved into their new palatial and publicly-subsidized stadium.
The National Football League denied the Gruden lawsuit.
“The allegations are entirely meritless and the NFL will vigorously defend against these claims,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said Friday.
The Raiders did not comment.
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Davis said he did not like the timing of the Gruden emails being made public and said he was blindsided by them last month.
Davis in October: “It’s a timing issue. That’s probably the disappointment that I had. … Well, the fact that they may have known about it a couple of months beforehand and didn’t let us know about that. We weren’t informed until, I guess it was that Thursday (Oct. 7), and we heard it from The Wall Street Journal initially. It was a rumor initially, they wouldn’t give us the email at the time, The Wall Street Journal wouldn’t. We spoke to the league later on that afternoon and by Friday (Oct. 8), they started giving us all the information, I spoke with the Commissioner and those things. But I believed if we’d have gotten the information earlier in the summer when they learned about it, it would’ve been a lot easier for everyone involved.”
The Raiders won two games in a row against Denver and Philadelphia after Gruden resigned, but lost against the New York Giants on the road last Sunday. The Raiders have a high-stakes home game against division rival Kansas City Chiefs at Allegiant Stadium in prime time Sunday. The Raiders are 5-3, while the Chiefs are 5-4. Rich Bisaccia was named as the interim head coach to replace Gruden.
LVSportsBiz.com will be at Allegiant Stadium to report on the Raiders game Sunday.