Getty Image / Ethan Miller
Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder agreed in April to sell the franchise for $6.05 billion to the Josh Harris/Mitchell Rales group.
The league has now set two potential dates where NFL owners will meet and the sale will (almost certainly) be approved, July 20th and August 8th. And on the eve of that, ESPN’s Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. have revealed a fascinating report into how Jon Gruden was ultimately Dan Snyder’s downfall.
There are so many moving parts to the story. It starts out with Raiders owner Mark Davis fuming at the NFL and Dan Snyder after his flashy new head coach’s racist emails were leaked, emails that Davis seemed to be the only person who didn’t know about them:
What angered Davis more than anything, he later said, was being surprised by the emails months after Goodell, Pash and other owners, including Snyder, knew about them. It seemed to Davis as if he and the Raiders were collateral damage in what he saw as Goodell’s yearslong effort to protect Dan Snyder, of all owners, at all costs.
“F— the NFL,” Davis later told Gruden. “And f— Dan Snyder.”
Who leaked Jon Gruden’s emails?
ESPN’s Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. went through “months of interviews with executives, lawyers, agents, and league and team officials” and determined the answer of who leaked the Jon Gruden emails is quite complicated.
Initially, it was believed the league leaked them. Goodell vehemently denied this to the owners and the focus then shifted to Dan Snyder as the potential culprit. ESPN’s investigation determined the answer was not straight forward.
According to ESPN’s sources, “Four owners told ESPN they believe Goodell was personally involved.” Also, one source said “NFL Players Association chief DeMaurice Smith” claimed responsibility for it. Another souree claimed a New York law firm “dusted off tactics it had used in Alex Rodriguez’s lawsuit against Major League Baseball years ago” working with Dan Snyder in the leaks.
No investigation from the league was able to definitively determine the source of the leaks. But the email leaks ultimately led to a congressional inquiry which would be phase 2 of Dan Snyder being forced to sell the Commanders.
At the center of all of this is Jon Gruden, who was ousted from the league. He still intends to push this as far as possible in court, according to the report:
Gruden persists in believing that Goodell “pushed the code red” against him, he told associates, adding that the commissioner executed the “kill shot” on his career, “a bullet to the head.” Gruden insists he won’t settle his lawsuit for any amount, intending “to burn the house down” to reveal the truth about who ordered the leaks. “This was a massive hit job,” Gruden recently told an associate, often saying Allen had told him the 650,000 emails “incriminate everyone in the league.”
While Gruden might intend to ‘burn the house down,’ his lawsuit agains the NFL was paused by the Nevada Supreme Court pending an appeal back in January.
The NFL preseason is less than a month away. It is possible the Washington Commanders‘ sale could be finalized 8 days from now.
I didn’t even scratch the surface about Jon Gruden’s role in all of this, based on the ESPN report. So do yourself a favor and go read that now:
NEW from @dvnjr and me: How the Gruden email leak led to the fall of Snyder
*Mark Davis: “F— the NFL. And f— Dan Snyder.”
*the "Blackmail PowerPoint” from Snyder lawyers to NFL
*Per associate, DeMaurice Smith bragged that he helped leak
*Jeff Pash believed "Snyder's law firm and…— Seth Wickersham (@SethWickersham) July 12, 2023