The Washington Post released their story on Dan Snyder, and it does not look good for the organization. The headline reads “From dream job to nightmare.” Basically it sums up more than a dozen women’s allegations of verbal abuse and harassment by former team employees. It comes trailing a questionable history that has been overwhelmingly negative in the public light.
Last year it became apparent that the franchise and team medical staff mismanaged Trent Williams’ cancer. He alleged the team told him that “it wasn’t serious.” In 2018, the New York Times published a report about the Washington Redskins cheerleaders taking a trip to Costa Rica for a calendar photo shoot back in 2013.
However, when the cheerleaders arrived, something appeared to be amiss when team officials gathered the women’s passports.
Some of the cheerleaders said once the photo shoot started, things took an uncomfortable turn as they were required to go topless.
No photographs in the calendar featured any nudity. It was a private resort and secluded- but there was an unexpected audience of onlookers. According to the Associated Press, a group of men that included sponsors and suite holders was allowed up-close access to the photo shoots.
On one evening after a 14-hour day of dance practice and posing for photos, the cheerleading squad’s director asked nine of the team’s members to stay and serve as escorts at a nightclub for some of the sponsors.
According to the report, there was no sex involved, but the cheerleaders involved said the arrangement felt as if they were “pimping them out.”
In addition, many say that ignoring changing their name for years should be added to the list above. Dan Snyder would not interview for this most recent piece with the Post. The team released a statement and said that they had hired attorney Beth Wilkson and her firm to conduct and independent review of the allegations.
The allegations detailed by the Washington Post span from 2006 through 2019. Notably no female employees had accused Snyder himself of misconduct in the workplace.
Washington #Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has hired a law firm to review the team’s culture, policies and allegations of workplace misconduct, per the AP
The @WashingtonPost is reportedly preparing a story about the team that is expected to highlight the culture over the years pic.twitter.com/svlmPwmVXk
— Gabriel Schray (@schrayguy) July 16, 2020
The story still details allegations of women saying he displayed poor conduct and acted in an unprofessional manner towards is staff. The report did detail allegations against two employees who were fired over the weekend. Allegations also landed on longtime play-by-play broadcaster Larry Michael.
Michael was with the franchise for 16 years and retired suddenly prior to the story breaking today. Speculation as to what the report would cover was off the charts. A series of tweets from reporters in the area indicated the news would come. Shortly after it was announced that the Washington football team team would no longer be known as the Redskins, the tweets began to hint of the story the world is waiting for.
"Disturbing, toxic, bombshell, sad" all thrown out regarding the former Washington #Redskins
"We don’t want to speculate but we are hearing that the Washington Post is going to release a report involving a shocking sex scandal" said ABC 7 https://t.co/Josmic5uzI
— Gabriel Schray (@schrayguy) July 16, 2020
John Gonzalez of ABC Washington tweeted that the team’s name change would be “old news” after a “bombshell report” was dropped. It all started on Sunday night and it continued until the release of the story. “A real busy week,” said JP Finlay of NBC on Twitter. “And it’s not all going to be about the name and it’s not all going to be pretty,” he continued. “What’s coming is disappointing and sad,” said Julie Donaldson in response to one Twitter user.
The user had replied to a tweet she had made previously regarding Kelvin Harmon. Clearly the story was all that it was cracked up to be by these reporters.
Literally zero proof beyond the tweets in this article, but allegedly big news is to come out of Washington and the NFL today#HTTR #News #NFL #NFLTwitter #Redskins #Sports #SportsBiz #Washington https://t.co/tAnxyPsbAE
— Gabriel Schray (@schrayguy) July 16, 2020
The series of ominous tweets led to “Dan Snyder” trending on Twitter all morning leading up to the release of the story. There are some positives points for Washington moving forward. Ron Rivera is regarded as a great man and a great head coach. The culture of the whole organization should change with Rivera in the building.
Most of the previous staff is gone now. Notably those named in the story. Both the name and the logo of the franchise will be changing. For many, it will feel like a fresh start. In addition, the franchise picked the best player in the draft. He should become a cornerstone for years. They have a disturbing history, and there’s a lot of change left to come. But we’ll see where it goes.
We’ll keep an eye on any developments and pass them on to you.
This article is comprised of information and media from the AP, the Washington Post, the New York Times and espn.com. This article was originally posted to the Midwest Sports Network. For more news, sports and entertainment, follow the Midwest Sports Network on Twitter @MWSNsports or like the MWSN page on Facebook.
