The battle will be joined on Wednesday.
According to Daniel Kaplan of TheAthletic.com, the NFL is due to file a response to former Raiders coach Jon Gruden’s lawsuit on Wednesday. Gruden accuses the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell of leaking his emails to former Washington executive Bruce Allen in an effort to force Gruden’s ouster.
As previously explained, the NFL will likely file a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that Gruden must submit the controversy to arbitration under his Raiders contract or any other document to which the league plausibly can point. The NFL also may claim that Gruden’s settlement with the Raiders precludes litigation against the league, depending on the language of the waiver of claims that Gruden signed to get a portion of the balance of his pay from the team. (Presumably, Gruden’s lawyers wrote the documents in a way that preserved his legal rights against the NFL, even though the Raiders are part of the NFL.)
Gruden’s lawsuit was filed on November 11. The response would have been due, by rule, in the middle of December.
It has been speculated that the league’s lawyers and Gruden’s lawyers mutually agreed to extend the deadline for responding. It’s possible that, for example, the two sides agreed that the response would be due four days after the conclusion of the Raiders’ 2021 campaign, in order to avoid creating yet another distraction in a season rife with them.