The Nevada Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously rejected the NFL's petition seeking a rehearing of an August decision that said former Raiders coach Jon Gruden could not be forced into league arbitration in his lawsuit alleging the league leaked damaging emails to the media before he resigned from the team in 2021.
All seven justices signed the order rejecting the league's petition for a rehearing.
The last legal resort left for the NFL is an appeal for the U.S. Supreme Court, which sources with knowledge of the situation have told ESPN is likely. A league spokesperson declined to comment Thursday night.
In August, by a 5-2 ruling, Nevada's high court did not determine whether the league had leaked Gruden's emails. But a majority of justices found that the league's decision to force his complaint into arbitration proceedings overseen by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell -- the target of Gruden's civil lawsuit -- was "unconscionable."
As a former employee, Gruden should not have been bound by the provision in the NFL constitution mandating arbitration for such complaints, the court ruled.
"By its own unambiguous language, the NFL Constitution no longer applies to Gruden," the justices wrote. "If the NFL Constitution were to bind former employees, the Commissioner could essentially pick and choose which disputes to arbitrate."
Gruden's lawsuit alleges that Goodell and the league pressured the Raiders to fire Gruden by leaking emails containing racist, sexist and anti-gay comments sent by Gruden when he was an on-air analyst at ESPN.
Gruden resigned from the Raiders in November 2021. He was their coach when the team moved to Las Vegas from Oakland in 2020.
Gruden is seeking monetary damages, alleging that selective disclosure of the emails and their publication by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times ruined his career and endorsement contracts.
Gruden's attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner, said Thursday that "we're obviously pleased with the decision." Gruden was unavailable for comment.
In August, after the Nevada Supreme Court decision, Gruden told ESPN that the selectively leaked emails, which contained anti-gay and racist remarks about Goodell and other league figures, disrupted the Raiders' 2021 season, forcing owner Mark Davis to seek the coach's resignation when the team was 3-1.
"I'm looking forward to having the truth come out and I want to make sure what happened to me doesn't happen to anyone else," Gruden told ESPN. "What happened wasn't right, and I'm glad the court didn't let the NFL cover it up."