Jon Gruden’s trial for leaking his racist emails just got more interesting

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Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden speaks to the media after an NFL football practice in Henderson, Nevada on Saturday, July 31, 2021, file photo.

We’ve just reached the end of the 2022 NFL season, but the drama has already begun on the field at least.

A congressional panel investigating the very messy dealings of what has been called the NFL’s most mismanaged franchise, the Washington Commanders, released their 79-page report today and among the findings were some something that goes right to the heart of an ongoing lawsuit and firing of a legendary former NFL head coach for sending racist emails.

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That former head coach is Jon Gruden, and he’s been suing the NFL for tortious interference since earlier this year. You see, Gruden lost a $100 million sack over 10 years after being forced to resign as head coach of the Los Vegas Raiders last year when a trove of emails in which he used racist and homophobic language was revealed. But the thing is, Gruden didn’t email himself. Other names appeared in these leaked emails; names of people not known to the public but who were certainly prominent in the NFL hierarchy when the emails were sent. Those emails only became public because 1) the NFL itself was investigating team commanders and owner Daniel Snyder over allegations of harassment and worse within the organization and 2) because someone acquainted with this investigation leaked the emails to The New York Times.

In short, Gruden grabbed $100 million from a gun aimed at Snyder, and now, in court, he wants to know whose finger that trigger belonged to so he can make them pay. Turns out Congress has an idea who it was.

From the Washington Post:

The 79-page report on the Democratic-led investigation gave the strongest indication yet that the team or someone working on its behalf leaked the inflammatory emails that prompted Congress to s ‘involved in October 2021. According to the report, former team president Bruce Allen testified to the committee that a senior NFL official told him the team leaked the emails that led to the resignation of Jon Grudens as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.

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The report doesn’t name names, but if true, who would you give money to to be part of this operation? Remember that Snyder allegedly hired private investigators to start digging up dirt on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and other league executives, just so he could have something in his back pocket if the other owners of the league decided to move to force him to sell his team. He has since announced that he has hired Bank of America to advise him on a possible sale, with Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, as well as Jay-Z and Kevin Durant interested in the team as a whole or just for a taste.

In the meantime, you can bet Grudens’ legal team is reading all the fine print on those 79 pages.

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