Jon Gruden, former head coach of the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders, is suing the league and its commissioner, Rodger Goodell, for forcing him to leave the position.

The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in the Eighth Judicial District Court in Clark County, Nevada, according to Gruden's attorney, Adam Hosmer-Henner.

"The complaint alleges that the defendants selectively leaked Gruden's private correspondence to the Wall Street Journal and New York Times in order to harm Gruden's reputation and force him out of his job," Hosmer-Henner said in a statement. "There is no explanation or justification for why Gruden's emails were the only ones made public out of the 650,000 emails collected in the NFL's investigation of the Washington Football Team or for why the emails were held for months before being released in the middle of the Raiders' season."

The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times first reported in October about emails by Gruden that used racist, anti-gay and misogynistic language, amid an NFL investigation into claims of workplace misconduct against the Washington Football Team.

Gruden apologized and said he never meant to hurt anyone before resigning as Raiders coach. He remained silent after that, until the lawsuit came out.

It claims that the NFL threatened the Raiders "that further documents would become public if Gruden was not fired." Gruden lost his sponsorship deal with Skechers and his appearance in EA's American football video game Madden NFL 2022 was wiped as well.

Gruden is seeking unspecified damages on seven claims as well as punitive awards and attorneys' fees. NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy called Gruden's allegations "entirely meritless," saying that the league "will vigorously defend against these claims."

Gruden became the head coach of the Raiders for the second time in 2018. The team's owner Mark Davis revealed last month that the two reached agreement on the remaining years of Gruden's contract but gave no details.