Former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell for "severe financial damages and harm to his career and reputation."

The suit claims Gruden should be compensated for "exemplary and punitive damages as a result of Defendants' oppression, fraud, or malice."

"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," Gruden's attorney Adam Hosmer-Henner said in a statement.

The lawsuit also claims the NFL "pressured the Raiders to fire Gruden" and "ratcheted up the pressure by intimating" more emails would be leaked.

"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," Hosmer-Henner said.

"In contrast to the formalities of the Washington Football Team investigation, Defendants' treatment of Gruden was a Soviet-style character assassination," the lawsuit says. "There was no warning and no process. Defendants held the emails for months until they were leaked to the national media in the middle of the Raiders' season in order to cause maximum damage to Gruden."

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy called the allegations "entirely meritless" and that "the NFL will vigorously defend against these claims."