The scandal that caused Jon Gruden to resign as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders was based on emails sent to Washington Commanders’ executives. Now comes word that there are some similar emails that Gruden sent within the Raiders organization while there.
David Charns of 8 News Now reported this week that NFL lawyers claimed that Gruden “consistently” sent “derogatory emails” while the head coach of the Raiders, according to court filings over the former coach’s lawsuit against the league.
“In several places, Gruden’s proposed order states that the emails were ‘sent between 2011 and 2018, during which time Gruden was not working as a coach in the NFL but as an employee of ESPN,” lawyers for the NFL and Roger Goodell said in a filing last week.
“Gruden’s claim (and purported finding of fact) on the timing of his emails is, in reality, very much disputed by the NFL parties and in fact false,” wrote the lawyers. “Discovery — necessary to make any finding of fact on this issue — will show that Gruden continued to send the same kinds of derogatory emails consistently following his start date with the Raiders.”
A previous New York Times investigation had found that Gruden regularly “casually and frequently unleashed misogynist and homophobic language… to denigrate people around the game and to mock some of the league’s momentous changes” while he worked for ESPN as well.
We’ll see if any of these alleged emails come to light as part of the discovery process or if Gruden is able to garner a settlement before that happens.