Jon Gruden won big last month when the Supreme Court of Nevada ruled the NFL could not force him to arbitrate claims that the league and commissioner Roger Goodell leaked controversial emails that led to his resignation as head coach of the Raiders.
But the NFL thinks the ruling requires a replay review.
The league on Monday petitioned for a rehearing, asking the court to reconsider its decision, which the NFL says could “carry major disruptive consequences” for a “host of industries.”
The seven-judge panel ruled 5–2 in August that the NFL’s policy giving the commissioner full power to arbitrate a dispute “is unconscionable and does not apply to Gruden as a former employee.”
However, the NFL argues that if the ruling stands, it could allow employees to sidestep arbitration agreements simply by resigning before filing suit, enabling them to “easily … evade their contractual commitments.”
“Such a regime would severely undermine the predictability that arbitration agreements are designed to provide, and it would increase instability for any industry that relies on arbitration agreements to resolve disputes,” the NFL said.
Gruden resigned as Raiders head coach during the 2021 season, after emails written by him during his time as an ESPN analyst, containing racist, misogynistic, and anti-gay slurs, were leaked. The emails were sent to then-Commanders GM Bruce Allen over a seven-year period, and they were uncovered during an investigation into the Washington organization.
Gruden sued that same year, claiming the NFL and Goodell either intentionally leaked the emails, or failed to prevent them from leaking, which ultimately led to his resignation. Gruden’s complaint described the situation as a “Soviet-style character assassination.”
The justices did not decide whether Gruden’s claims are true; rather, they said in their eight-page decision that the NFL could not send the matter into arbitration, which the league has pushed to do.
The battle over whether the case must go to arbitration has been ongoing since it was filed in 2021. A three-judge panel initially ruled against Gruden in May 2024, saying the case needed to be arbitrated. But he won his appeal of that decision in October, which moved the case to the higher court that issued last month’s ruling.
Now, the NFL is asking that same court for a rehearing, which the league says “is necessary to honor the parties’ agreement and realign this Court’s decision with the controlling law protecting arbitration agreements.”
If the Supreme Court of Nevada rejects the NFL’s rehearing request, the league’s only remaining option—on the arbitration front—would be an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. If that happens and the justices decline to take up the case, the matter would move back to a lower Nevada court, in which Gruden’s underlying claims against the league and Goodell would be litigated.
The NFL declined to comment, and a representative for Gruden did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
