NFL moves to dismiss Jon Gruden lawsuit, calls ex-Las Vegas Raiders coach's claims against league 'baseless'

11:44 PM

According to the motion filed by the league, the accusations that the league leaked the emails of the former Raiders coach are baseless and should be thrown out for lack of a viable cause of action.

The league responded to the suit that was filed in Nevada. The court was asked to stay the motion to dismiss the case until the first ruling on whether the case should be moved to an arbiter.

In October of this year, Jon Gruden resigned as coach of the Raiders with more than six seasons remaining on his 10-year, $100 million contract.

He claimed that a malicious and orchestrated campaign was used to destroy his career by leaking old emails that included racist, misogynistic and anti-gay language.

Emails were sent to Bruce Allen, a former Washington Football Team executive, during the time that Jon Gruden was the lead analyst for Monday Night Football. The emails came from a set of 650,000 obtained by the league during an investigation into WFT's workplace culture.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 8 that Gruden used a racist phrase to describe Smith.

The Raiders lost at home to the Bears two days later, and then Gruden apologized.

The New York Times revealed that over a seven-year period, he sent misogynistic and anti-gay emails. He apologized again and said he never meant to hurt anyone.

He cannot dispute that he wrote the published emails. The league's filing said that he cannot dispute that he sent the emails. He doesn't claim that they were altered or edited, and that they were not expressed by him. The instant complaint against the NFL and the commissioner was filed by Gruden, who painted himself as the victim in a fictional story and sought money through baseless claims against the league.

There was no explanation or justification for why Gruden's emails were the only ones made public out of the 650,000 emails collected in the NFL's investigation of the Washington Football Team or for why the emails were held for months before being released in the middle of the year.

The league denied leaking the emails, which had been sent to up to a half-dozen people, and added that Gruden had no expectation of privacy for the emails.

The filing said that even if the league leaked the emails, it still wouldn't constitute interference with a contract because the league had no obligation to protect the confidentiality of the emails.

Raiders owner Mark Davis said in October that he had reached a settlement with Jon Gruden over the final six years of his contract. The terms of the settlement were not revealed by Davis.

Information from The Associated Press was used.