David Teel
Once upon a time, congressional involvement in Washington’s NFL franchise meant jockeying for position in the owner’s box on fall Sunday afternoons. That’s how wildly popular and consistently excellent the team was.Then Dan Snyder purchased the operation.Evidenced by plunging attendance, a decaying stadium and dreadful results, his incompetence has long been evident.This past Wednesday, when congressional immersion in the franchise translated to another torrent of damning evidence, Snyder’s darker side, along with the NFL’s impotence, were further exposed. So, too, was the wisdom of Virginia lawmakers, who recently took a hard pass on helping Snyder finance a new stadium.As congressional proceedings often do, Wednesday’s House Committee on Oversight and Reform session on the Washington Commanders degenerated into political grandstanding. But documents unveiled by the committee hours before the hearing could not be ignored.
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A 29-page summation written by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), the committee’s chairwoman, alleges that Snyder interfered with the NFL’s investigation of the rampantly sexist workplace that Snyder fostered. This he did by employing private investigators to stalk witnesses or offer them hush money, according to deposition transcripts released Wednesday.Maloney’s memo also accuses Snyder of using a lawsuit he filed in India as a pretext to abuse subpoena power and obtain phone records, text messages and emails of Washington Post reporters and former Commanders employees he believed were conspiring against him — in short an enemies list straight from the Nixon playbook 50 years after Watergate.Snyder’s obstruction of a probe ordered by the NFL and conducted by attorney Beth Wilkinson was, according to the memo, “a shadow investigation” designed to blame former team president Bruce Allen for the team’s noxious culture.“Bound together by an agreement to pursue a common interest and a joint legal strategy, the NFL and Commanders ultimately buried Ms. Wilkinson’s findings,” Maloney wrote.Buried, indeed, and testifying remotely Wednesday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell defended the indefensible: the league’s refusal to make public Wilkinson’s conclusions. Goodell hid behind privacy concerns for the victims of sexual harassment, even as some of those victims have urged him to share the findings.Asked by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) why others’ names couldn’t be redacted from a written report, Goodell said: “Redaction doesn’t always work in my world,” a pithy-yet-meaningless response.In light of Wilkinson’s findings — at Goodell’s direction, she presented an oral summation rather than written document — the NFL last year fined the Commanders $10 million, petty cash for an NFL franchise, and indefinitely removed Snyder from the team’s daily operations. Goodell on Wednesday called those sanctions appropriate, a laughable stance he might want to revisit.For example, Snyder continued his shadow probe after the NFL told him to stop, a textbook case of insubordination. Moreover, Goodell testified that Snyder failed to inform the league of a 2009 sexual harassment claim he settled for $1.6 million, a violation of NFL policy.Subsequent revelations of the 2009 case prompted the NFL to open a second probe of Snyder, the results of which Goodell said will be made public.Since Snyder purchased the franchise in 1999, Washington fans have enjoyed three regular seasons of at least 10 victories. Three. In 23 years.Joe Gibbs once coached the team to eight such seasons in nine years. George Allen had four such records in a five-year span, this back when the regular season was only 14 games.But wins and losses don’t reveal character. Actions do.Snyder’s actions expose an unrepentant, crass and homophobic bully unfit for the privilege of owning an NFL franchise. Alas, the prospects of fellow owners marshaling the votes and moxie to force Snyder out are remote — a three-quarters supermajority is required.The chances of Snyder appearing voluntarily at Wednesday’s hearing were equally remote, and Maloney announced that the committee will subpoena Snyder to testify this upocoming week.“Rather than show up and take responsibility for his actions,” Maloney said during the session, “he chose to skip town.”Yes, but at least he had his minions release not only a statement disparaging the hearing but also a letter to Commanders employees that he co-wrote with his wife, Tanya, and team president Jason Wright.Ducking accountability? Issuing banal statements to shift blame and portray himself as a victim?Even in absentia Wednesday, Dan Snyder was in vintage form.David Teel reports for The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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