The House Oversight Committee’s 14-month investigation into Dan Snyder and his franchise has led to multiple other ongoing probes, which have produced the loudest noise about a potential Commanders sale. The Oversight Committee’s investigation is now complete, with a final report surfacing Thursday.
The report accuses Snyder of permitting and participating in a longtime toxic workplace culture and obstructing the Committee’s investigation. In addition to dodging a Committee subpoena this summer, the Commanders owner is accused of making an effort to intimidate and dissuade witnesses from testifying. Snyder, 57, also offered hush money to several former Washington employees during Beth Wilkinson’s NFL investigation last year, according to the Committee.
Thursday’s report also links Snyder and the Commanders to playing the lead role in the fall 2021 email leak that led to Jon Gruden‘s Raiders resignation. Former Washington team president Bruce Allen said Lisa Friel, the league’s special counsel for investigations, indicated the email leak came from Snyder’s franchise and not the NFL, according to the report. Dan Snyder’s wife, Tanya, who had taken over the franchise’s day-to-day operations after Wilkinson’s investigation last summer, said at the October 2021 owners’ meetings neither she nor her husband was behind the leaked emails, per the Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala, Mark Maske and Liz Clarke. Gruden has since sued the NFL, which had previously denied being behind the leak. Thursday’s report marked a key development on that front, among others.
Allen also informed the Committee that Snyder had spoken about hiring private investigators to gather intel on Roger Goodell. Reports of Snyder obtaining damaging information on Goodell and other owners started a firestorm at this latest set of owners’ meetings, which featured Jim Irsay championing an unprecedented ouster of an NFL owner and saying 24 votes to remove Snyder might be there. Shortly after Irsay’s comments, the longtime Washington owner denied hiring firms to gather dirt on other owners.
The Committee accused the NFL of assisting Snyder’s franchise in covering up Wilkinson’s report. The league is believed to have initially called for a written report to be released but later reversed course. Last year’s NFL investigation brought a $10MM Snyder fine and a de facto suspension, but Snyder is believed to no longer be under any restrictions regarding his role with the Commanders. No summary of Wilkinson’s findings led to the Oversight Committee probe and another NFL investigation. Mary Jo White’s inquiry is set to come with a report of the findings.
“We saw efforts that we have never seen before, at least I haven’t,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, the Committee chairwoman (via ESPN.com’s Tisha Thompson). “The NFL knew about it and they took no responsibility. [The NFL was] acting like they were doing something. Then they turn around and fix it so [Wilkinson] can’t talk.”
Accusing Snyder of instilling a “culture of fear,” the Committee concluded sexual harassment, bullying, “and other toxic conduct pervaded the Commanders workplace.” Included are a number of former employees’ accounts, with the Committee indicating this run of inappropriate conduct occurred for “more than two decades.” More than 100 former team employees spoke about various aspects of this culture to the Committee. Snyder has owned the team since 1999.
The previously reported shadow investigations Snyder was accused of conducting of former employees during the Wilkinson inquiry surface again here. Snyder sent private investigators to homes of former employees, including Allen. The report also includes accounts from former cheerleaders and a video staffer, the latter saying Washington execs commissioned him to produce a video for the owner featuring “sexually suggestive footage of [the team’s] cheerleaders.”
A statement from Commanders counsel John Brownlee and Stuart Nash (via Jhabvala, on Twitter) accuses the Committee of taking a “one-sided approach” and produced a conclusion that “does not advance public knowledge of the Washington Commanders workplace in any way.” The NFL’s latest investigation into Snyder and the Commanders, centered around workplace toxicity and financial improprieties, is ongoing. As are the other investigations the Oversight Committee’s probe launched. A number of prospective bidders for the Commanders have surfaced over the past several weeks.
The next owner needs to rebrand the team in his/her own image. Start by getting rid of that stupid name.
How about Redskins? It would honour the great Native American nations who have been more or less wiped out by successive Washington DC governments since the 1800’s.
They could even have an iconic logo designed by son of a great chief, featuring a Native Chief in full war dress.
In the name of representation I can think of nothing greater to pay homage to our native hosts
Maybe try it with a name that isn’t originally a racist slur.
They have stayed with the Indian theme and gone with Natives or asked one of the local tribes in the area permission to use their name like FSU did with the Seminoles.
They should just go with Warriors. It has the ability to preserve the whole native thing without being racially inclusive.
Plus the literative WWs has a lot of graphic potential.
perfect.
How bout the “Caucasians” and have George Armstrong Custer as the mascot? Instead of racist fans doing the tomahawk in the crowd, they can do something from white culture…if it actually exists beyond lines from “Frasier”.
Since the NFL is committed to Europe, why not the Euro’s?
Custer W
Do more races
Agreed we need more
This just in: the report also found that Snyder kidnapped the Lindbergh baby, causes cancer, and was responsible for green lighting Clear Pepsi.
Lol that’s very funny
I knew it, nobody believed me. I’ve been telling people this goes back to at least the 80’s.
You wanna talk about toxic workplace environments, how about investigate the restaurant injury. Where women are constantly sexually harassed and also get paid like crap. Make a complaint about a manager and then suddenly start getting the worst tables, worst shifts and eventually are forced to quit or get fired over something petty weeks down the road.
Why is the NFL where everyone is at least making great money the first place to make an example of having a toxic work environment? I’d love to see the same platform for the middle class working people.
*restaurant industry
You’re on the wrong site. You should be on the Restaurant Industry Rumors site. Gee, nothing like going off topic
Quite an odd, completely unrelated tangent you’ve gone here.
To answer your question towards the end, though: because the NFL is a huge, extremely public-facing organization that enjoys tax benefits, publicly-funded stadiums, and has one of the biggest cultural events around (the Super Bowl).
The restaurant industry contains millions of different businesses, which each have their own rules, workplace environments, pay scales, etc etc etc. So to ‘investigate the restaurant industry’ would be an almost impossible endeavor.
So nothing that rose to the level of an actual crime, then? Perhaps he should sue them for defamation.
You know labor violations are crimes, right? So is intimidating witnesses. What grounds do you think he has for a defamation suit?
Obstruction of Justice is a crime. So is witness tampering. So is sexual harassment/assault.
So maybe don’t.
Perhaps you should Google “defamation”.
De-fam-ay-shun: when someone points out anything you’ve ever done that didn’t immediately result in criminal charges being filed against you.
Yes, this pillar of industry should be lauded for his humanitarianism…
No sh*t and the sky is blue
Sadly, this is just another demonisation act. Most NFL owners and franchises are in the same general ballpark (pardon the pun). Playthings of billionaire heirs mainly (the real billionaire entrepreneurs are too busy building their fortune to stand the distraction of owning a pro sports franchise). Bad behaviour by default.
Irsay himself has hardly been a paradigm of virtue. Throwing starting quarterbacks and head coaches under the bus, willy-nilly, to compensate for his bad ideas (hire in deteriorating vet QB’s with just a season or two or half still in them).
Or Cal McNair. The timing with the DeShaun Watson charges closely corresponds with Watson telling McNair he will never play for the Texans again and to fly a kite. Carefully accumulating and releasing blackmail materials would far outbat Snyder’s sins.
Robert Kraft has encouraged Bill Belicheck to violate all the rules on spying on other teams and for fun visits massage parlours staffed by trafficking victims.
None of this is to excuse Snyder’s own sins. Just that it’s unlikely that any NFL franchise would do any better under a legal investigation like that spearheaded by lawyer NFL lawyer Beth Wilkinson.
Bad Man Snyder now enduring his sixty seconds of hate.
On whom will the spotlight shine next?
I would applaud Congress for at least also doing some of their real work this time, but seeing as their latest work is simply self-plagiarism I’m not quite sure that applause stands now.
LMAO at Jerry Jones previous cracks on Dan.
There is no Dana, only Zuul
Unless someone actually accused him of sexual assault, what exactly is Snyder guilty of? He’s allowed to run his business as he wants? Why the heck did taxpayer money go into this “investigation”?
Dan Snyder deserves a special place in hell. What a little rotten scumbag he is. Same thing goes for his complicit wife. A match made in hell. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest them eternally. Come sue me now, Danny boy.
Explain
Read the article
Dislike Snyder but the Gov can just keep taking L’s
I’ll be very disappointed if Netflix or HBO don’t acquire the movie rights.
Is Dan more important than getting imprisoned Americans returned home?
People enjoy being mad