Daniel Snyder must face consequences for Redskins sexual harassment scandal
Daniel Snyder deserves to face consequences for the toxic culture of the Redskins that was revealed in a recent story.
On Thursday evening, a long-awaited story from The Washington Post about the culture of the Washington Redskins dropped. And it was every bit as bad as the rumors had indicated. The story by Will Hobson and Liz Clarke outlined a culture of consistent sexual and verbal harassment against women in the Redskins organization.
Overall, 15 female employees outlined the abuses they suffered at the hands of director of pro personnel Alex Santos, assistant director of pro personnel Richard Mann II, former president of business operations Dennis Greene, former chief operating officer Mitch Gershman, and team announcer Larry Michael. From unwanted romantic advances to inappropriate text messages and constant verbal abuse from executives, the accounts of these women are horrifying.
While none of the men implicated in the story are still with the team — Santos and Mann were fired this week while Michael announced his retirement; the others had already left their posts — Washington can’t be let off scot-free. There needs to be more legitimate action taken and in particular, one individual, in particular, must face the consequences of this report.
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That would be team owner Daniel Snyder.
The alleged abuses in the article took place over the course of 15 years. Snyder has been running the team for 20. He allowed this toxic culture to fester and as a result, he let these men stick around in the organization.
Yes, you can point to the fact that since Snyder isn’t directly implicated in the report, it’s possible he didn’t know about the abuses occurring in his front office. But that’s incredibly hard to believe given that 1) the office culture outlined in the piece had been occurring for such a long period and 2) that three of the men implicated in the scandal were referred to as members of Snyder’s “inner circle”.
As Emily Applegate said in the piece, she assumed Bruce Allen knew something about the behavior in the organization.
"“I would assume Bruce [Allen] knew, because he sat 30 feet away from me … and saw me sobbing at my desk several times every week,” Applegate said."
And if Allen knew, Snyder had to have known, too.
But even on the extremely remote chance that Snyder didn’t know what was going on, he is still at fault. As the owner of the team, he must protect his employees and create a safe work environment. At the very least, allowing this culture to persist and thrive is negligent behavior on his part. And if he did know, then it’s even worse.
It’s also worth noting that the article did outline some of Snyder’s poor behavior as well. According to the story, he was responsible for “belittling” some of the other top executives and frequently targeted Dennis Greene.
"Snyder routinely belittled top executives, according to three former members of his executive staff, perhaps most intensely Greene, the former sales executive, whom Snyder mocked for having been a male cheerleader in college. After one executive staff meeting, according to one former employee, Greene said Snyder had ordered him to do cartwheels for their entertainment."
Between this piece of information about Snyder and the widespread harassment happening under his nose, there’s no doubt that there must be some sort of punishment levied against him. He needs to face the consequences and understand that this type of culture will not be allowed in the NFL.
What could the consequences be? It’s hard to know at this point. The NFL will surely review this matter thoroughly and make a decision on that front.
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But either way, Snyder deserves what’s coming. This type of organizational behavior simply cannot be tolerated.