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Former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden, who resigned final month after revelations that he had made racist, homophobic and misogynistic feedback in emails, is suing the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell.
“By a malicious and orchestrated marketing campaign, the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell sought to destroy the profession and repute of Jon Gruden, the previous head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders,” mentioned the lawsuit filed Thursday in Clark County District Court docket in Nevada.
The lawsuit alleges that the league and Goodell “pressured” Gruden out of his job.
“In distinction to the formalities of the Washington Soccer Workforce investigation, Defendants’ therapy of Gruden was a Soviet-style character assassination,” the lawsuit alleges. “There was no warning and no course of. Defendants held the emails for months till they had been leaked to the nationwide media in the midst of the Raiders’ season to be able to trigger most harm to Gruden.”
It alleges that the NFL uncovered lots of of hundreds of emails as half of a bigger investigation into sexual harassment allegations towards the Washington Soccer Workforce, however selectively leaked emails that implicate Gruden.
The lawsuit additionally claims the NFL initially solely launched one electronic mail, which contained a racist comment about NFL Gamers Affiliation govt DeMaurice Smith’s lips, and instantly started pressuring the Raiders to fireside him over it.
When Raiders refused to take away him, the lawsuit alleges the NFL then launched one other spherical of emails to the New York Occasions. It alleges that the league “weaponized” them, finally inflicting the Raiders to strain Gruden to step down.
“There is no such thing as a rationalization or justification for why Gruden’s emails had been the one ones made public out of the 650,000 emails collected within the NFL’s investigation of the Washington Soccer Workforce or for why the emails had been held for months earlier than being launched in the midst of the Raiders’ season,” mentioned Adam Hosmer-Henner, Gruden’s legal professional, in a press release Friday.
The lawsuit additionally claimed the leaks had been an try and distract from the NFL’s failure to correctly deal with the sexual harassment allegations towards the Washington Soccer Workforce.
Nowhere within the lawsuit does Gruden deny sending the emails.
NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy on Friday referred to as Gruden’s allegations “completely meritless” and mentioned it “will vigorously defend towards these claims.”
Gruden’s transfer to take authorized motion comes after a number of experiences emerged about his emails with disparaging remarks. The messages had been despatched was an ESPN analyst, earlier than he turned coach of the Raiders.
Within the emails, Gruden referred to as Goodell a “f—–” and a “clueless anti soccer p—-,” in line with The New York Occasions. Gruden additionally mentioned that Goodell shouldn’t have pressured Jeff Fisher, then-coach of the Rams, to draft “queers,” which is a reference to brazenly homosexual participant Michael Sam who was chosen by the crew in 2014.
There have been additionally emails the place Gruden shared inappropriate photographs of Washington Soccer Workforce cheerleaders, the Occasions reported.
Gruden has since apologized for his previous remarks that surfaced.
“I really like the Raiders and don’t wish to be a distraction,” he mentioned upon his Oct. 11 resignation. “Thanks to all of the gamers, coaches, workers, and followers of Raider Nation. I am sorry, I by no means meant to harm anybody.”
CNBC’s Jessica Golden contributed to this report.
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