Washington NFL team hires law firm to review culture

Fifteen former female employees said they were sexually harassed during their time with the Washington Redskins over a 13-year period, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

While one of the women gave her name, the other 14 provided details involving the harassment for a report that included interviews with 40 people in and around the NFL organization, according to the Post. The allegations are pointed at former scouts and members of owner Dan Snyder’s inner circle.

In a statement, the team said it takes issues of employee conduct seriously and, “While we do not speak to specific employee situations publicly, when new allegations of conduct are brought forward that are contrary to these policies, we address them promptly.”

Snyder has hired a District of Columbia law firm to review the team’s culture, policies and allegations of workplace misconduct. Beth Wilkinson of Wilkinson Walsh LLP confirmed to The Associated Press on Thursday that the firm had been retained to conduct an independent review.

Within the past week, three members of the front office have left the organization. Director of player personnel Alex Santos, assistant Richard Mann II and longtime broadcaster and senior vice president Larry Michael are no longer with the team. Michael announced Wednesday he was retiring after 16 years. The Post reported all three were involved in the long-term allegations, which allegedly occurred from 2006 to 2019.

Also Wednesday, the team promoted Jeff Scott to assistant director of pro scouting and advance coordinator to replace Mann.

Washington is in the midst of several months of significant change. President Bruce Allen was fired after the 2019 season, coach Ron Rivera was hired on New Year’s Day and given control of football operations, and the team this week announced it’s dumping the name “Redskins” after 87 years.

Allen’s departure coincided with the firing of the team’s previous medical and training staff, and Rivera brought trainers with him from Carolina and hired a new coaching staff.

Neither Allen nor former coach Jay Gruden was implicated in the allegations. Snyder, though, was reported by many of the women as complicit in the culture of sexism and harassment.

Snyder was blamed for a creating a human resources department made up of one person for 220 employees, constant verbal abuse of staffers and encouraging a sophomoric culture.

“I have never been in a more hostile, manipulative, passive-aggressive environment … and I worked in politics,” said Julia Payne, former assistant press secretary in the Clinton Administration, who worked as the team’s vice president of communications in 2003.

“With such a toxic, mood-driven environment, and the owner behaving like he does,” said Payne, who added that she did not witness or endure sexual harassment while with the team. “How could anyone think these women would go to HR?”

The women told the Post they were harassed or assaulted by Santos, Mann and Michael as well as Dennis Greene, former president of business operations, and Mitch Gershman, former chief operation officer.

“It was the most miserable experience of my life,” Emily Applegate told the Post.

She said of her year working as a marketing coordinator: “We all tolerated it, because we knew if we complained — and they reminded us of this — there were 1,000 people out there who would take our job in a heartbeat.”

The Washington Post and The Associated Press contributed to this report.