Washington Owner Dan Syner “Permitted and Participated” in Toxic Culture, NFL Aided
A bombshell report released Thursday afternoon, implicates embattled Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder and the National Football League in a scheme to cover up the toxic work environment perpetuated by the the Commanders for more than two decades.
The Commanders and Snyder have been linked to allegations of sexual misconduct against female employees in the workplace for years. Snyder has owned the football club formally known as the Washington Redskins since 1999.
According to ESPN: “The committee’s 79-page report released Thursday also comes down hard on the NFL, concluding that the league was complicit in Snyder’s efforts by not cooperating with the congressional inquiry and burying a 2020-21 investigation of the Commanders’ workplace led by attorney Beth Wilkinson.”
In addition, the congressional report says the NFL put the “interests of league owners ahead of NFL employees, failing to protect them or ensure that victims can speak up without fear of retaliation.”
The revealing opening paragraph released by the Oversight Committee says it all. “The Committee’s investigation shows that sexual harassment, bullying, and other toxic conduct pervaded the Commanders workplace, perpetuated by a culture of fear instilled by the Team’s owner. Despite the NFL’s knowledge, through its internal investigation, that the Team’s owner permitted and participated in the workplace misconduct, and engaged in tactics used to intimidate, surveil, and pay off victims, the NFL aligned its legal interests with the Commanders, failed to curtail these abusive tactics, and buried the investigation’s findings.”
BREAKING: After a year-long investigation, @OversightDems is releasing our final report on the @Commanders' toxic workplace culture and the startling lengths that they - with the support of the @NFL - went to cover it up and evade accountabilityhttps://t.co/iZWeYNMROe
— Oversight Committee Democrats (@OversightDems) December 8, 2022
“The NFL chose to bury Ms. Wilkinson’s findings and whitewash the misconduct it uncovered,” the committee’s report says. “Rather than seek real accountability, the NFL aligned its legal interests with Mr. Snyder’s, failed to curtail his abusive tactics, and buried the investigation’s findings.”
Snyder has tried to dodge culpability claiming that former General Manager Bruce Allen was responsible for the toxic environment. Allen was with the Commanders from 2010 until his ouster in 2019.
Republicans on the committee have also jumped into the fray turning the investigation into a partisan hit job. “Committee Democrats have leaned on unsubstantiated allegations as fact to the proper investigation,” it reads in bold face type on page two of their response.
“The Democrats sham investigation into the Washington Commanders has been an egregious waste of tax-payer funded resources.” Here is the link to the Republican memo via the New York Times.
Snyder has come under intense pressure to sell his majority stake in the Washington franchise which changed its name three times in the last few years. The team once known as the Washington Redskins changed its name after finally succumbing to decades of calls to change a name many deemed racist. After living with the name Washington Football Team for two seasons, they finally changed the name to Commanders. In addition, the team’s stadium, FedEx Field, is widely considered one of the worst kept facilities still standing the NFL.
