Report: Eroding support from NFL owners for Daniel Snyder originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reported Sunday on NBC’s Super Bowl LVI pregame show that support from NFL owners is eroding for Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder after a direct allegation of sexual harassment by an ex-employee before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Feb. 4.
“I’m told, for the first time ever, there is a sense among ownership that the time may have come for Daniel Snyder to move on,” Florio said on NBC four hours before kickoff of the Super Bowl between the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals.
Sexual harassment allegations and a “toxic” workplace environment resulted in a 10-month investigation by attorney Beth Wilkinson bridging 2020 and 2021. That investigation was started by the Washington Commanders but taken over by the NFL. The league imposed sanctions on July 1, but while its punishment to the organization was public, a written report of Wilkinson’s findings were not. The league requested only an oral report.
“I’m told that if [Wilkinson] had [prepared a written report], one of her recommendations would have indeed been that owner Daniel Snyder be required to sell the team,” Florio said.
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Washington, D.C. radio station 106.7 The Fan had a similar report on March 5, 2021. The station claimed it had seen a portion of a written report by Wilkinson and that her conclusion was the same as what Florio reported on Sunday: Snyder should sell the team.
Instead, the organization was fined $10 million and Snyder’s wife, Tanya, took over as co-CEO running day-to-day operations and representing the franchise at league events and meetings for an undermined amount of time that is ongoing.
On Feb. 4, the Oversight Committee held a roundtable featuring six former Washington employees and heard those employees’ stories of the “unavoidable” harassment they experienced during their time with the team.
One ex-employee, Tiffani Johnston, made a new allegation directly against Snyder, saying he put his hand on her thigh during a work dinner and then tried to direct her into his limousine later that same night before a colleague intervened.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell insisted during a Feb. 9 news conference in Los Angeles that the league has priority in any investigation into that allegation – despite the team already hiring its own investigative group to do so.
“I do not see any way that a team can do its own investigation of itself,” Goodell said. “That’s something we would do. We would do it with an outside expert that would be able to help us come to the conclusion of what the facts were.”