Nevada Supreme Court blocks arbitration of Jon Gruden’s case against NFL, Roger Goodell
Published August 11, 2025 05:30 PM
Jon Gruden made a Hail Mary pass in the Nevada Supreme Court. And it went for a touchdown.
In November 2021, Gruden sued the league and Commissioner Roger Goodell for leaking to multiple media outlets emails from the supposedly confidential investigation into the Washington franchise. Gruden contends that the leaks were calculated to force his ouster. And indeed they did.
He initially won before the trial court. After having the Nevada Supreme Court rule that his civil lawsuit must be resolved through arbitration, Gruden filed a motion for rehearing before the full court. First, they granted the request. Now, they have ruled in his favor.
In a 5-2 ruling, the Nevada Supreme Court has found that the arbitration clause contained in the NFL’s Constitution and Bylaws “is unconscionable and does not apply to Gruden as a former employee.”
The league primarily relied on the broad language of its constitution regarding the Commissioner’s power to have “full, complete, and final jurisdiction and authority to arbitrate . . . [a]ny dispute . . . that in the opinion of the Commissioner constitutes conduct detrimental to the best interests of the League or professional football.”
In an eight-page decision, the Nevada Supreme Court found that the provision is unconcsionable because it “would allow Goodell, as Commissioner, to arbitrate disputes about his own conduct — exactly what is at issue here.” The Nevada Supreme Court then declared that the ability of Goodell to delegate the actual arbitration to another party does not matter.
The court further explained that the league’s power to alter its constitution whenever it wants makes the arbitration clause unconscionable.
Sepearately, the court refused to prevent Gruden from suing the league in court due to the presence of an arbitration clause in his contract with the Raiders.
The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Undoubtedly, the league will attempt to appeal the outcome to the United States Supreme Court; that’s what the league did when the Missouri Supreme Court found that the lawsuit regarding the relocation of the Rams could not be forced into arbitration.
If that happens, the case will continue to linger. The first question will be whether the Supreme Court will take up the case. If it does, the question becomes whether the league will disagree with the Nevada Supreme Court, forcing Gruden to arbitrate his claims.
As it relates to the quest for the truth, it’s important that the case be litigated in court. That’s how everyone will find out how and why someone weaponized the Washington emails against Gruden. And why, more importantly, the attack happened during the regular season — thereby undermining the integrity of the entire campaign, as to all 32 teams.
If the case is arbitrated, we may never know who ordered the proverbial Code Red against Gruden.
