The NFL said Washington Football Team owner Daniel Snyder was “held accountable” for the investigation into his franchise that resulted in the resignation of former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden. Despite league commissioner Roger Goodell addressing the matter in October amidst the league not releasing any details of the investigation other than a summary, The Washington Post is reporting Snyder wasn’t cooperating fully with the investigation.
Per The Post, Snyder’s attorneys allegedly tried to block a key accuser from speaking with attorney Beth Wilkinson, who led the investigation into the Football Team over the past year. More than a dozen former Washington employees alleged sexual harassment in the organization. which led to a full investigation by the league. Washington was fined $10 million by the NFL for its “highly unprofessional” environment.
Snyder, who stepped down from running the day-to-day operations of the team, allegedly had his attorneys try to prevent the 2009 accuser from speaking to Wilkinson — seeking to secure “silence” and “noncooperation” from his accuser. Snyder’s attorneys denied the claim.
The Washington owner also allegedly took former employees to court in an attempt to identify them. Snyder allegedly hired private investigators who showed up uninvited to their homes and contacted friends and relatives in an attempt to intimidate and discourage them from participating in the investigation.
Snyder was also reportedly offended that former team president Bruce Allen didn’t send him a text message congratulating him on the hire of Ron Rivera in January of 2020. Allen was the recipient of Gruden’s email sent back in 2011 in which the former Raiders coach, who worked for ESPN at the time, used a racial trope to criticize NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith. That exchange was a part of the leaked emails in which Gruden denounced female referees and made slurs about Goodell. One email included Gruden saying a former NFL safety, who knelt during the national anthem, should be fired. Gruden resigned after the emails were leaked to the public in October.
Goodell addressed Snyder’s involvement in the investigation when the league announced all 650,000 emails reviewed regarding misconduct with the Washington Football Team would not be released to the public.
“I do think he’s been held accountable,” Goodell said back in October. “I think the organization has been held accountable. I think we gave an unprecedented fine. Dan Snyder has not been involved with the organization for now almost four months. We are obviously focused more on making sure that policies — some that they put into place prior to this investigation — coming out of it were put into place and that they will be maintained and that we can ensure that that will happen in this organization.”
