The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Former NFL coach Jon Gruden lost a Nevada Supreme Court ruling Tuesday in a contract interference and conspiracy lawsuit he filed against the league after he resigned from the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021, but his lawyer said he will appeal.

A three-justice panel split 2-1, saying the league can force the civil case out of state court and into private arbitration that might be overseen by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Gruden’s attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner, said he will appeal to the full seven-member state high court to hear the case.

“The panel’s split decision would leave Nevada an outlier where an employer can unilaterally determine whether an employee’s dispute must go to arbitration and also allow the employer to adjudicate the dispute as the arbitrator,” the attorney said.

Attorney Kannon Shanmugam, representing the NFL, declined to comment on the ruling.

Gruden’s lawsuit, filed in November 2021, alleges the league forced him into resigning from the Raiders by leaking racist, sexist and homophobic emails that he sent many years earlier, when he was at ESPN.

The panel majority, Justices Elissa Cadish and Kristina Pickering, said Gruden “expressly acknowledged” in his contract with the Raiders that he understood the NFL constitution allowed for arbitration to resolve disputes.

They also said it wasn’t clear that Goodell would arbitrate Gruden’s case, citing other cases in which the commissioner designated third-party arbitrators to hear disputes.

“As a former Super Bowl champion coach and long-time media personality signing the most lucrative NFL coaching contract in history, while being represented by an elite agent, Gruden was the very definition of a sophisticated party,” Cadish and Pickering wrote.

In her dissent, Justice Linda Marie Bell said the NFL constitution was a 447-page “take-it-or-leave-it” add-on to Gruden’s seven-page contract with the Raiders that left him with “unequal bargaining power.”

“The majority indicates, and I agree, that the employment agreement is substantively unconscionable because Goodell acting as arbitrator is outrageous,” Bell wrote.

Gruden was the Raiders head coach when the team moved in 2020 from Oakland to Las Vegas. He left the team with more than six seasons remaining on his record 10-year, $100 million contract. Raiders owner Mark Davis later said the team reached a settlement with Gruden over the final years of his contract. The terms were not disclosed.

New job

NEW YORK — Jason Kelce is officially a member of ESPN’s “Monday Night Countdown” team.

ESPN announced Kelce had signed a multiyear agreement on Tuesday during a presentation to advertisers in New York. He will also be a part of ESPN’s Super Bowl week coverage. Kelce will replace Robert Griffin III, who will continue with the network as a college football analyst.

More TV games

NEW YORK — First, Lamar Jackson. Then, Joe Burrow. The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs face a daunting test in opening their season after CBS unveiled Kansas City’s Week 2 opponent as being the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Burrow-led Bengals will travel to play at Kansas City in a late-afternoon outing on Sept. 15. The matchup follows the Chiefs opening the NFL schedule hosting the Ravens on Sept. 5.

The league also revealed Aaron Rodgers and the Jets will open their season Sept. 9 on Monday Night Football at NFC champion San Francisco. Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football schedule opens with Miami hosting Buffalo on Sept. 12.