Nev. Court Again Rules Gruden Suit Should Be Shunted To Secretive NFL Arbitration

Former NFL coach and ESPN analyst Jon Gruden lost a bid Monday to move his lawsuit against the league out of arbitration and back into court.

In May, a three-judge panel in the Nevada State Supreme Court ruled 2–1 that Gruden’s case could go into the private and Roger Goodell-overseen NFL arbitration process, overturning a lower court’s decision that said the legal battle could stay in court. Goodell is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit.

On Monday, the court website simply read “rehearing denied,” and it’s not yet apparent whether Gruden will try to get the issue before the entire seven-person court, according to The Associated Press. He has until July 29 to ask the court for reconsideration.

The dispute centers around leaked sexist, racist, and anti-gay emails Gruden sent from 2011 to 2018 while working for ESPN. The emails became public in October 2021 in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Gruden, who was then head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, shortly after resigned and filed suit against the NFL, saying the league “intentionally” released the messages, which it denied. 

Many of the emails were between Gruden and former Washington president Bruce Allen and were released amid the NFL’s extensive investigation into the team’s toxic and sexist workplace culture.

Unless Gruden tries to take the suit to the Supreme Court, the next step could be the NFL arbitration Gruden has been trying to avoid. The single dissenting Nevada judge has written that having a defendant potentially hearing the case in arbitration would be “outrageous.” The judges that sided with the NFL admitted that they didn’t know whether Goodell or a third party (who would be picked by the league) would hear the case. The NFL has faced heavy criticism in the past for its secretive arbitration process.