The saga of former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden recently took another twist. Obviously, many fans are sick of hearing about Gruden’s emails at this point. That’s fair. However, this latest development is interesting, if not disparaging. Most fans that actually defended Gruden pointed to the fact that the messages that led to his outing were written while he was not an employee of the Raiders. Now, it appears that may not be entirely accurate.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, who’s been following the Gruden debacle, earlier today wrote an update regarding the matter. Apparently, the NFL suggests that the former Raiders head coach wrote derogatory emails even after returning to the NFL. Following Gruden’s exit from the Silver and Black, he filed a lawsuit against the league and commissioner Roger Goodell. Essentially, Gruden claimed the release of the emails was part of a smear campaign.
The following is from the NFL’s lawyers who have questioned the accuracy of Gruden’s claims, originally published by PFT.
“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.’ 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. 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.”
Lawyers for Jon Gruden are pushing back
That’s not all, though, as Florio points out that Gruden’s lawyers are pushing back. They (Gruden’s attorney Adam Hosmer-Henner) state that the league’s lawyer conceded that those emails were before Gruden’s return to the Raiders.
“The NFL did not make these unsubstantiated arguments in the motions they already lost and will not be able to make them if they appeal. In fact, their own attorney conceded during the hearing that the emails were sent before Jon Gruden signed with the Raiders.”
Moving forward, it’ll be interesting to see what happens if the case goes to court. According to Florio, these new emails will be considered evidence acquired after the fact. Maybe Gruden doesn’t want these new emails to be released? If that’s the case, maybe he’ll agree to go to arbitration. We’ll see.
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*Top Photo: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports