Previous reports had focused on emails involving Gruden between 2011 and 2018, while he worked for ESPN before returning to the Raiders. Gruden resigned in October following reports that he had used racist, homophobic and misogynistic language in those emails.
“Gruden even claims in his Proposed Order that it is ‘undisputed that all of Gruden’s conduct referenced by the NFL Parties occurred prior to the signing of the Agreement and while Gruden was not an employee of the Raiders or the NFL,'” the league’s attorneys wrote in last week’s filing. “Gruden’s claim (and purported finding of fact) on the timing of his emails is, in reality, very much disputed by the NFL Parties and in fact false. Discovery — necessary to make any finding of fact on this issue — will show that Gruden continued to send the same kinds of derogatory emails consistently following his start date with the Raiders.”
The NFL declined further comment Wednesday through a spokesperson.
“The NFL did not make these unsubstantiated arguments in the motions they already lost and will not be able to make them if they appeal,” Adam Hosmer-Henner, Gruden’s attorney, said in a statement Wednesday. “In fact, their own attorney conceded during the hearing that the emails were sent before Jon Gruden signed with the Raiders. The NFL has tried to avoid discovery from the beginning, not Jon Gruden. This is just another attempt by the NFL and Commissioner Goodell to save face by attacking Jon Gruden while still not owning up to the truth of their actions. Jon isn’t going to try to hide from his deposition, is the Commissioner?”
The emails that came to light last year were sent to Bruce Allen, the former president of Washington’s NFL team, and others. They were gathered as part of the NFL’s investigation overseen by attorney Beth Wilkinson into the Washington team’s workplace.
Gruden filed his lawsuit in November, accusing the NFL and Goodell of using leaked emails to “publicly sabotage” his career and pressure him into resigning.
The league and Goodell asked the court in January to dismiss the lawsuit. The NFL said it did not leak the emails that led to Gruden’s resignation and contended that Gruden “has no one to blame but himself” for any damage 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.
In May, District Judge Nancy L. Allf allowed Gruden’s lawsuit to proceed by denying separate motions by the NFL to dismiss the case or force it into arbitration.
The Raiders did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday on last week’s court filing by the NFL.
Tanya Snyder, the co-CEO of the Commanders who has been in control of the franchise’s daily operations since July 2021, told fellow NFL owners during a league meeting in New York in October that the leaks did not originate with her or her husband, Daniel Snyder, the franchise’s principal owner, multiple people familiar with the situation said then.
An investigation conducted by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform found evidence that Daniel Snyder and members of his legal team had conducted a “shadow investigation” and compiled a “dossier” targeting former team employees, their attorneys and journalists in an attempt to discredit his accusers and shift blame following allegations of widespread misconduct in the team’s workplace. The committee’s investigation also found that Snyder hired private investigators and lawyers to unearth inappropriate emails and evidence aimed at convincing the NFL and Wilkinson that Allen was primarily responsible for any workplace issues.
The committee detailed its findings in a memo in June.
Snyder gave a voluntary deposition under oath to the committee for more than 10 hours remotely in late July.