[Joe Pendleton]

"Hubris" brother

[majik]

Gruden’s is gonna get paid. No way the NFL will get to the discovery process potentially have all of Snyder’s communications out in the public.

[St. Loser Fan]

Gruden’s is gonna get paid. No way the NFL will get to the discovery process potentially have all of Snyder’s communications out in the public.

If you have HBO, watch the Bob Costas interview show with Jerry Jones and how he carefully covers for Snyder and the investigation.

They had a follow up round table with a couple of sports writers and one mentioned that Jerruh loves Snyder in DC because that’s two Cowboy wins most years and a division opponent that will never challenge. I never thought of that angle.

[BobCarl]

No way the NFL will get to the discovery process potentially have all of Snyder’s communications out in the public.

Gonna be a lot of stuff in those 750,000 emails ... maybe even some stuff about spy-gate ... and/or ... communications regarding dirty-laundry about anyone in the NFL that the public has never been aware of ... yet.

[Hacksaw]

Is this going to help keep our game / league upright?
Of course I don't support lying, cheating, bigotry and many other things being alleged here.
"Off with their heads" at all costs might backfire and some legends (to some) might fall from grace. Al
On the other hand, as @max suggested, we could be in for some interesting discovery.

Between the StL lawsuit and this, the NFL can't be claiming business as usual..

[BobCarl]

NFL files to dismiss Jon Gruden lawsuit, reveals former coach sent offensive messages to at least 6 people

By Daniel Kaplan via The Athletic
January 19, 2022 Updated 9:10 PM CST

The NFL filed in Nevada state court to move former Raiders head coach Jon Gruden’s lawsuit over his leaked emails to arbitration, divulging that the ex-coach also sent offensive electronic correspondences to at least six people. The filings strongly suggest that league commissioner Roger Goodell would have unilaterally fired Gruden had not the coach resigned in October.

“Gruden sent a variety of similarly abhorrent emails to a half dozen recipients over a seven-year period, in which he denounced `the emergence of women as referees,’ and frequently used homophobic and sexist slurs to refer to Commissioner Goodell, then-Vice President Joseph Biden, a gay professional football player drafted in 2014, and others,” the NFL wrote.

That moves the offensive emails beyond being just sent to former Washington Football Team president Bruce Allen. Those were sent while Gruden worked from 2011 to 2018 as a Monday Night Football commentator at ESPN. As part of the league’s investigation into sexual harassment at the WFT, more than 650,000 emails were reviewed.

In 2011, Gruden used a racist trope to refer to NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, who is Black. He wrote to Allen, “Dumboriss Smith has lips the size of michelin tires,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

In a 2014 email to Allen, which was publicly filed in a legal proceeding, Gruden referred to perceived league pressure to hire “queer” players, an apparent reference to Michael Sam, an openly gay player trying to make the St. Louis Rams. And Gruden in other emails used homophobic language to describe Goodell.

Gruden sued the league on Nov. 11, alleging the league leaked the emails to get back at him because of offensive things he had written about Goodell. The league denies it leaked the emails, but wrote doing so would have made no sense because the disclosures harmed the NFL’s image, and Goodell could have fired Gruden anyway.

“The crux of Gruden’s Complaint is that somehow the NFL or the Commissioner `leaked’ his non-confidential emails (which were already sitting in the hands of Gruden’s many recipients and as to which Gruden had no colorable expectation of privacy) to, for some inexplicable reason, destroy his career and ruin his reputation, despite the fact that the emails precipitated numerous media stories critical of the League, and also negatively impacted the League and the Raiders in the middle of the football season,” the NFL wrote, and “would have and could have permitted the Commissioner himself to sanction and fire Gruden.”

“Indeed, it would be hard to imagine conduct more detrimental to football than the use by a football coach of a racist trope to describe the leader of NFL Players Association.”

The NFL also filed a motion to dismiss but asked the court to stay that motion until it decides whether the case should move to arbitration. Under NFL contracts, disputes are mandated to be settled in arbitration. Gruden’s argument appears to be that this situation goes beyond the bounds of normal employment disagreements.

“This action—brought by Jon Gruden to blame anyone but himself for the fallout from the publication of racist, homophobic and misogynistic emails that he wrote and broadly circulated—belongs in arbitration under the clear terms of Gruden’s employment contract and the NFL’s Constitution and Bylaws to which Gruden is bound,” the NFL wrote.

The NFL argues that even if it did leak the emails, which it maintains it did not, Gruden could have no expectation of privacy.

(Photo: Justin K. Aller / Getty Images)

What happens next?
Kaplan: Now that both sides have had their initial say, the lawsuit moves toward hearings and dueling motions. Gruden will surely respond that the leaked emails were outside the scope of his employment agreement, and thus the case belongs before a judge and not an arbitrator. It will be up to the judge to rule, though there is ample legal precedent, with the NFL and other businesses, that courts cannot upend arbitration provisions. Whichever way the judge rules, either party can of course appeal.

If the judge rules the case belongs in court, then the NFL’s motion to dismiss kicks in and the court must rule there again. One fact to note is discovery does not begin until after a plaintiff survives a motion to dismiss, so don’t expect juicy revelations anytime soon.

If the case does get dismissed, does Gruden have other legal options?
Kaplan: If the Nevada state court does move the case into arbitration, or keeps the case and then dismisses, it’s hard to see what options Gruden would have. He could file a federal lawsuit, but chances are he filed in Clark County because he feels that jurisdiction is more friendly.

It’s hard to see Gruden winning in either venue because as the NFL points out in its filings, he doesn’t dispute the content of the emails, so truth becomes a defense. The former coach could argue the emails were sent while he wasn’t with the NFL and so the league had no right to allegedly leak them. Whatever the outcome, Gruden has surely coached and broadcast his last game.

[RedAlice]

Michael Sam was not "trying to make the St. Louis Rams" - the Rams are the team that drafted him.

Fun draft, and enjoyed that moment. (me being a dork who actually watches the whole draft).

Complete Bull Shit to write it like that tho by whomever wrote the article.

[BobCarl]

"trying to make the St. Louis Rams"

Complete Bull Shit to write it like that tho by whomever wrote the article.

"Complete Bull Shit"

Yes, it is sloppy writing.

The writer probably spent 10 minutes doing a "hunt and peck" exercise on his tablet while riding in the back of an Uber.

Then an intern copy editor, who knows nothing about football, spent 90 seconds correcting the punctuation. After which, the actual Editor skims over the first two paragraphs, throws up a headline and forwards the article to a junior webpage designer.

A junior web-page designer uploaded it to the website's software ..... one last "click" ... and the article goes out to be read by a few thousand bots and few dozen of people like me who pays $3 a month.

I learned to read from articles by a person who went by the the name of "Bernie Miklasz", who most residents of St. Louis thought was God's pseudonym.

Bernie actually taught me that most sports writers put up 20% truth, 20% namedropping, 20% buzzwords/clichés, and the rest is yes .... "Complete Bull Shit".

But I look forward to articles in The Athletic written by Tashan Reed, Jourdan Rodrigue, and Ted Nguyen. Their articles are worth every penny to me.

[Elvis]

Man i hate to defend the author but after being drafted, Sam was trying to make the Rams which he ultimately didn't do...

[BobCarl]

Man i hate to defend the author .... (Sam) after being drafted...

I don't think you are defending the author at all.

The way I understand it, (and I'll gladly accept more accurate info) Gruden's bigoted criticisms came before the draft, as it was well known that the league was pressuring the Rams to draft him.

I don't know how much a player gets to "try" to make a team before he has been drafted.