Jon Gruden reacts to Nevada Supreme Court ruling vs. NFL, vows to expose truth about Roger Goodell

Jon Gruden is looking forward to the chance to challenge the NFL and Roger Goodell in a courtroom. On Monday, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled in favor of Gruden, blocking arbitration in his lawsuit against the league and its commissioner.

That will open the door for Gruden to have his case heard in court. He made his first public comments since the news in a statement to ESPN on Tuesday.

“I’m looking forward to having the truth come out and I want to make sure what happened to me doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Gruden said. “…What happened wasn’t right and I’m glad the court didn’t let the NFL cover it up.”

Gruden initially sued the NFL and Goodell in 2021 for leaking emails from Gruden containing racist, homophobic, and misogynistic remarks to multiple media outlets during an investigation into the Washington franchise. Gruden contended that the emails were leaked to cause his firing as the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Gruden resigned from the Raiders in October 2021 while the team was 3-1.

He initially won before the trial court, but filed a motion to compel after the court ruled that the case would be decided through arbitration. The Nevada Supreme Court voted 5-2 in his favor Monday, finding that the NFL’s arbitration clause in its Constitution and Bylaws “is unconscionable and does not apply to Gruden as a former employee.”

“By its own unambiguous language, the NFL Constitution no longer applies to Gruden,” the five justices wrote. “If the NFL Constitution were to bind former employees, the Commissioner could essentially pick and choose which disputes to arbitrate.”

Two justices said Jon Gruden knew when he signed a 10-year contract with the Raiders in 2018 that the NFL used arbitration to resolve disputes. However, the dissenting justice wrote that it would be “outrageous” for Goodell to arbitrate a dispute in which he is named a defendant.

An NFL spokesman said Tuesday the league would petition the Nevada Supreme Court for a rehearing, according to ESPN. If that fails, the most likely next venue would be an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Either way, it’s clear there are still a lot of steps ahead before the lawsuit is actually taken to a courtroom. However, Gruden got his big win Monday, and he’s going to do everything in his power to make sure justice is served as he sees it.

“The NFL’s legal position is absurd and will continue to be rejected by every court,” Gruden’s lawyer, Adam Hosmer-Henner, told ESPN. “Obviously, the NFL should not be allowed to be the judge of claims against the NFL or force people to comply with contracts that the NFL can unilaterally change any time it wants without notice.”