Two former female employees of the Washington Football Team attended the owners meeting in New York. Melanie Coburn and Ana Nunez hand-delivered a letter signed by 12 former team employees addressed to the NFL’s social justice working group of owners urging the league to release the findings of the workplace culture investigation into the team, according to Mark Maske of The Washington Post.
“While your working group was formed to address issues of racial justice in the league, you also have the ability to seek justice for the hundreds of women and men, such as us, who bravely came forward to share stories of harassment and abuse we experienced while employees of the WFT,” the letter stated, per The Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala. “The NFL should not be allowed to encourage employees to come forward at great personal and professional risk to speak to investigators, only to sweep the results of that investigation under the rug.”
The two women, who were part of Washington’s investigation, also spoke with reporters for a brief moment in the lobby of the hotel where the owner meetings are held.
When asked if owner Dan Snyder is responsible for the toxic workplace culture of the team, Coburn said “100 percent,” according to MMQB’s Albert Breer.
Washington was investigated for nearly a year starting in July 2020 after initially more than a dozen women came forward with accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct from officials while being employed by the team.
DC high-powered attorney Beth Wilkinson headed the investigation and reported her findings directly to the league. However, the league has refused to release the findings publicly.
The Washington Football Team was fined $10 million. Dan Snyder handed over day-to-day operations to his wife and co-CEO Tanya Snyder over the summer. The decision was said to be voluntary. He will focus on plans for a new stadium for the team.
Attention on the investigation subsided until emails from former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden to former Washington GM Bruce Allen surfaced publicly. Gruden’s emails of seven years consisted of racial, homophobic and misogynistic language. They included insults and slurs being directed at NFLPA’s executive director DeMaurice Smith and league commissioner Roger Goodell.
Gruden resigned as a result. Other questionable emails involving Allen have been leaked but the league has been steadfast to not release the estimated 650,000 emails and results of Wilkinson’s report despite urging from the NFLPA, former Washington employees and now the United States Congress.
