Two former Washington Football Team employees hand-delivered a letter addressed to all 32 NFL team owners at the league's fall meetings on Tuesday, urging owners to demand that the NFL make public its findings from the investigation into Washington's workplace culture. Signed by 12 former team employees, the letter calls for "transparency" from the league, as reported by NFL Media and other outlets, suggesting the NFL needs to stop "preserving misogynist and abusive structures" and start "reckoning with its cultural problems," specifically including Washington team owner Daniel Snyder.
Ana Nunez and Melanie Coburn, two ex-Washington employees, delivered the letter to the front desk of the hotel where owners are meeting this week, per The Washington Post. While in the hotel lobby, they also addressed reporters and called for an apology from the NFL, declaring that Snyder is "100 percent" responsible for the team culture that prompted NFL discipline of Washington Football Team this summer, and that Snyder has "mastered the art of the NDA" amid growing calls for details of the NFL investigation.
The league punished Washington for its "highly unprofessional" work environment in July, announcing a $10 million fine against the franchise as Snyder surrendered day-to-day CEO duties to his wife, Tanya. This came a year after The Post first cited 15 former team employees alleging sexual harassment in the organization. It also indirectly led to the abrupt resignation of Raiders coach Jon Gruden this season, with The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reporting on insensitive emails Gruden had exchanged with former Washington team president Bruce Allen.
But Coburn, Nunez and 10 other former team employees, like dozens of lawyers of former Washington employees have done in recent weeks, are calling on the NFL to unveil other findings from the investigation.
"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," Tuesday's letter to owners said. "Coach Gruden's resignation was certainly appropriate, but the larger systemic problems remain. Indeed, it it telling that after such a wide-ranging, exhaustive investigation into the culture of WFT and its owner, the only person to be held accountable is the coach of another team."
"If the NFL discloses the results of the investigation and takes meaningful steps to address the underlying problems, that will send the message that the league does not tolerate misogyny and abuse," the letter continues. "To date, the league has sent the opposite message. By failing to disclose the findings of the investigation, and by ignoring calls to do so by WFT employees, lawyers, activists, and most recently Congress, the league is communicating that it is more interested in protecting wealthy owners and preserving misogynist and abusive structures than in reckoning with its cultural problems."
"We are calling on you to demand that the NFL make the findings public," the letter asks of owners. "We are calling you to do the right thing."
The NFL said previously it does not intend to release any additional findings from its investigation for confidentiality reasons. It has, however, said it looks forward to communicating with the U.S. House of Representatives' Oversight Committee, which recently saw its chairwoman request the NFL turn over documents and findings related to the Washington investigation.
