Redskins officials accused of sexual harassment in WaPo article

The heavily-anticipated Washington Post article detailing the inner workings of the Washington Redskins franchise under Dan Snyder has been released.

For much of the week, local and national reporters hinted at a coming report that would paint Dan Snyder, Jay Gruden, and other Washington Redskins front office officials in a negative light. That article was expected to be published today.

The initial publish of the article was presumably delayed. It was reported by Adam Schefter that Dan Snyder had hired a widely-acclaimed lawyer to represent the Redskins, as well as review the organization’s practices, ahead of the article’s release.

Schefter also later reported that several minority owners were attempting to sell their shares of the franchise, going so far as to expedite the process by hiring an outside firm to facilitate a transaction.

After hours of tense buildup, the Washington Post article, collaboratively written by Will Hobson and Liz Clarke, has been released to the public.

The article contains the experiences of a former female Redskins employee named Emily Applegate, as well as anonymous quotes from 14 other female employees who declined to reveal their names for legal purposes.

The quotes of these 15 women tell of rampant sexual harassment occurrences at Redskins Park, and the article names five specific instigators — Larry Michael, Alex Santos, Richard Mann II, former COO Mitch Gershman, and former president of business operations Dennis Greene.

Michael, Santos, and Mann II all left the organization within the last week. Santos and Mann II were fired without explanation, while Michael retired abruptly one day before the release of the aforementioned article. Greene was ousted in 2018 after a scandal related to these allegations. Gershman left the organization in 2015.

According to the article, the claims of harassment range from 2006 to 2019, a time range that corresponds with Dan Snyder’s oversight of the franchise. Applegate called her time with Washington “the most miserable experience of my life”.

The article states that Dan Snyder was not specifically accused of harassment, but several quotes asserted that Snyder was not only complicit, but contributory to the toxic culture that precipitated under his watch. In addition to several first-hand accounts of abuse contained in the article, one quote, from former VP of communications Julie Payne, is particularly adept at describing the environment:

"I have never been in a more hostile, manipulative, passive-aggressive environment … and I worked in politics. … With such a toxic, mood-driven environment, and the owner behaving like he does, how could anyone think these women would go to HR?"

There’s bound to be a fallout from this article. Even before its release, events were already being put into motion. Dan Snyder has already been facing pressure to sell, and now, that pressure may only continue to mount.