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Jon Gruden scored a big win in his long legal battle against the NFL on Monday.
The Nevada Supreme Court ruled in the former coach’s favor in his case alleging the league and commissioner Roger Goodell leaked controversial emails to media outlets that led to his resignation as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. The judges 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.
Gruden first sued the NFL and Goodell in 2021, weeks after his ouster from the league.
The seven-judge panel ruled 5–2 that the NFL’s policy that gives the commissioner full power to arbitrate a dispute “is unconscionable and does not apply to Gruden as a former employee.” The court said the clause lets the commissioner “arbitrate disputes about his own conduct — exactly what is at issue here.” The judges also found it “unconscionable” that the league can change parts of its constitution including the arbitration clause “at any time, and without notice.”
The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We’re very pleased with the Nevada Supreme Court’s decision, not just for Coach Gruden but for all employees facing an employer’s unfair arbitration process,” Gruden’s lawyer Adam Hosmer-Henner said in a statement. “This victory further vindicates Coach Gruden’s reputation, and it clears the way to swiftly bringing him full justice and holding the NFL accountable.”
Gruden resigned as head coach of the Raiders during the 2021 season when emails leaked containing racist, misogynistic, and anti-gay slurs from his time as an ESPN analyst. The emails were sent to then-Commanders GM Bruce Allen over a seven-year period and uncovered during an investigation into the Washington organization. Gruden claims the league and Goodell intentionally leaked these emails, ultimately forcing him to resign.
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 Monday’s ruling.
The NFL will likely petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its case, but the nation’s top court only chooses to hear a small number of the appeal requests it receives, instead deferring to the lower court’s decision in most cases. If the Supreme Court declines to hear the case, that means that—barring a settlement—the league would have to battle Gruden in court, an outcome it has sought to avoid for years.
This story has been updated with comment from Gruden’s attorney.
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