With two stints as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders (formerly Oakland Raiders), Jon Gruden is a Silver and Black icon.
That is only half of the reason it was so upsetting for owner Mark Davis to fire the veteran, Super Bowl-winning head coach in 2021 over leaked emails that caused a controversy.
Davis mentioned the incident during the introductory presser of the Raiders' fourth head coach since the firing, Pete Carroll, on Monday.
“Bringing in Tom Brady was bringing in somebody on the football side that I had been lacking having here in the organization,” Davis said. "Back in I guess it was ’18 with Jon Gruden, he was somebody that I brought in and really expected to be that person on the football side that would bring stability to the organization. He had a 10-year contract and all that, and his head was chopped off. And we were put in a really bad position as an organization."
Gruden is still out of the league and embroiled in a massive lawsuit against the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell, which we have reported on throughout. There has been a strong implication of support for Gruden by Davis, and our Hondo Carpenter wrote of a pathway to victory for the old coach using information he received from an experienced attorney who is not connected to the ongoing case.
"If true, Goodell and the NFL should be extra worried because they are fighting two well-funded and aggrieved opponents -- one of whom is in the shadows and not technically a part of the lawsuit," Carpenter wrote. "Now that Gruden’s case has survived dismissal, Gruden’s legal team can begin the discovery process to determine if in fact Goodell and the NFL conspired against him and the Raiders. Gruden’s lawyers can demand emails, memos, phone logs, text messages, and even metadata to support their claim. Gruden’s team can demand that Goodell sit for a deposition and give testimony under oath. Short of a few procedural maneuvers to delay the process, there’s not much the NFL can do to stop this from happening.
"This part is important: NO company -- let alone the NFL -- wants hostile parties rummaging through their desk drawers. The only way a defendant can stop the discovery process is to offer the plaintiff an irresistible sum of money. Unfortunately for the NFL, that might be a number that doesn’t exist because Gruden -- and Mark Davis -- are out for blood, not cash."
