Former Washington Commanders employees and members of Congress pressured the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday to release a report about the team's history of sexual harassment and its sexist, hostile workplace culture. They say the team and owner Dan Snyder have not been held accountable for their misdeeds.
Snyder commissioned an investigation into the team's workplace environment that was taken over by the NFL. After the investigation by attorney Beth Wilkinson's firm, the league fined Washington $10 million and Snyder temporarily ceded day-to-day operations of the team to his wife, Tanya.
But the league did not release any details of the Wilkinson investigation's findings, and former team employees who spoke Thursday before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform noted the contrast to the way the NFL handled an investigation into allegations that quarterback Tom Brady deflated footballs.
“When the investigation of the air pressure of Tom Brady's football concludes with a 200-plus-page report, but the investigation into two decades of sexual harassment concludes with nothing, it shows the NFL's complete lack of respect towards women, their employees and for the culture of our country,” said Emily Applegate, who worked in the team's marketing department and said she was sexually harassed daily by her boss.
In 2020, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and widespread protests about systemic racism, the team dropped its longtime name “Redskins” amid pressure from sponsors to get rid of a moniker that was criticized for decades for being offensive to Native Americans. The team was known as the Washington Football Team until Wednesday, when Snyder announced its new name, the Commanders.
“Just yesterday, Mr. Snyder tried to rebrand his team as the Commanders. With due respect, it's going to take more than a name change to fix that broken culture,” said Rep. Carol Maloney, D-N.Y., the committee chairwoman.
Former team employee Tiffani Johnston made new allegations against Snyder on Thursday, saying he placed his hand on her thigh without her consent at a team dinner and that he pushed her toward his limousine with his hand on her lower back.
“He left his hand on the middle of my thigh until I physically removed it,” Johnston said.
Describing the incident outside Snyder's limousine, she said: “The only reason Dan Snyder removed his hand from my back and stopped pushing me towards his limo was because his attorney intervened and said, ‘Dan, Dan, this is a bad idea.’ ... I learned that I should remove myself from Dan's grip while his attorney was distracting him.”
Maloney read from a letter by another former team employee, Jason Friedman, corroborating Johnston's account.
Among the allegations repeated at Thursday’s roundtable discussion: that women working for the team were repeatedly subjected to unwanted touching and crude comments; that cheerleaders were ogled by team executives and clients and fired by Snyder because of their looks; and that the team’s video production department, at Snyder’s behest, secretly edited an explicit video of cheerleaders using surreptitious footage from a calendar shoot.
It was unclear whether pressure from Congress would prompt Goodell, who has cited former employees' privacy for not releasing the report of the investigation, to change his mind or take any further action against Snyder or the team. Spokespeople for the league and the team did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment about the status of the report or the new allegations against Snyder.
Republicans said it was outside the scope of the committee to push a legislative solution to the team's treatment of employees and said the roundtable was a distraction from more urgent issues.
“The witnesses here have begged for us to do something, and nothing is going to happen as a result of this committee,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C. “That's cruel to these people.”
