NFL DEPLOYS FREE SPEECH LAW TO CHALLENGE GRUDEN LAWSUIT

The National Football League has filed an anti-SLAPP motion seeking to dismiss former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden's lawsuit under Nevada statute. The motion represents a fresh legal strategy after the NFL lost multiple appeals in its previous attempt to move the case to arbitration. According to reports, the league argues that the disclosure of Gruden's emails constituted good faith communication on a matter of public concern and should therefore be protected under Nevada's anti-SLAPP law, which guards defendants against lawsuits designed to silence speech.

Gruden filed the lawsuit in November 2021 following his resignation after his emails were made public. The NFL had obtained those emails in June 2021 but did not release them until October of that year, during the regular season when the Raiders held a 3–2 record. The league's anti-SLAPP argument rests on the claim that whoever leaked the emails was addressing an issue of public interest. Critics have questioned this characterisation, noting that if the emails concerned a genuine public matter, the timing of their release — mid-season rather than before or after — appears inconsistent with that rationale.

The anti-SLAPP statute protects defendants who engage in communication on matters of public concern. However, one complication underlies the NFL's defence: the argument that the emails were disclosed in the public interest potentially conflicts with the league's denial of involvement in the leak itself. Discovery proceedings in the case are expected to reveal who connected to the NFL or related organisations was responsible for releasing the confidential documents.