A hearing on whether a lawsuit filed against the NFL and its chief Roger Goodell by ex-Raider’s coach Jon Gruden can proceed is set for May 25, a report says.
Oral arguments on whether the lawsuit will be allowed to go forward will be held in from of Judge Nancy Alf in Nevada, according to ESPN.
Gruden is suing the league over emails that he says were “selectively leaked” to destroy his NFL career.
The former coach filed his lawsuit last November after his private emails were leaked that showed him making racist statements about a member of the NFL Player’s Association.
DeMaurice Smith, Executive Director of the NFLPA (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
“The complaint alleges that the defendants selectively leaked Gruden’s private correspondence to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times in order to harm Gruden’s reputation and force him out of his job,” said Gruden’s attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner.
“There is 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 Raiders’ season,” the lawsuit added.
Former Las Vegas Raiders Coach Jon Gruden (Chris Unger/Getty Images)
In January, the NFL filed a motion asking the Nevada court to dismiss the lawsuit saying it was “baseless” and “should be dismissed for failure to state a single viable cause of action.”
The NFL insists that by the terms of his contract, he should be addressing grievances through the NFL’s arbitration policies, not through the courts.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston