LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Attorneys for the NFL and league commissioner Roger Goodell asked the Nevada Supreme Court on Monday to delay proceedings scheduled for November in former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden’s case against them.
The high court was scheduled to hear arguments in the league’s appeal on a district court judge’s ruling on Nov. 7, the court’s docket said. Attorneys for the NFL and Goodell were asking for a delay until at least January due to unrelated legal matters and the holidays, a filing said.
Gruden resigned from the Raiders on Oct. 11, 2021, after emails surfaced showing he used racist, misogynistic and homophobic comments. A New York Times investigation revealed Gruden had not only used racist comments in an email in 2011, but had regularly used derogatory language in emails during his employment with ESPN.
The NFL appealed to the high court after a Clark County District Court judge sided with Gruden in the NFL’s request for arbitration in Gruden’s lawsuit against the league.
“Appellants are making this request in good faith and not for the purpose of delay,” the NFL’s lawyers wrote in their delay request. “Because the proceedings below are stayed, a postponement of oral argument will not result in the waste of judicial or party resources.”
Lawyers for the NFL have pushed to settle Gruden’s lawsuit through arbitration — and not the public process of discovery. That process would likely reveal how and who leaked Gruden’s emails and other business-related information. The discovery process could also reveal other information the NFL seeks to keep confidential.
Gruden signed a $100 million contract with the then-Oakland Raiders in 2018. According to the lawsuit, he is not being paid the remaining balance on the contract, which runs through 2027. His lawyers also write Gruden is losing out on endorsement deals, including one with footwear company Skechers.
In August 2022, Gruden said he was “ashamed” about the emails.
