NFL expected to fine Washington pending investigation, Dan Snyder to remain owner

The Washington Redskins are expected to be fined by the NFL pending an investigation of sexual harassment within the organization. But owner Dan Snyder isn’t likely to sell the team.

On Thursday, The Washington Post released a story about a toxic culture within the Washington Redskins organization. The story detailed 15 women who claim to have been subjected to sexual harassment at the hands of members of the team’s front office.

The accounts of the ordeal are disgusting. And the allegations rightly led to the team firing pro personnel executives Alex Santos and Richard Mann II while Larry Michael, the long-time voice of the Redskins, opted for an early retirement.

The next step for the team is going to be an investigation of the alleged misconduct. The organization hired D.C. attorney Beth Wilkinson to conduct this review, and once it’s finished, there will be consequences for the team and Dan Snyder. That said, the consequences are expected to be more in the monetary realm than anything else.

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According to Mark Maske of The Washington Post, the NFL is going to monitor the review of the Washington franchise set up by Snyder. The most likely outcome of the review is a fine for the organization should the allegations be substantiated. But it’s unlikely that the league would challenge Snyder’s ownership barring unforeseen developments.

"The NFL will monitor and potentially have some participation in that review, according to one of the people with knowledge of the league’s planning and deliberations. The NFL is empowered to discipline a team, its owner or employees under its personal conduct policy. That person and another familiar with the NFL’s inner workings said a fine of the team is expected if the allegations are substantiated.Both said that, barring new developments implicating Snyder directly, they would not expect the league or fellow owners to try to challenge Snyder’s ownership, given that he was not accused of any inappropriate behavior toward the women in the report by The Post."

It’s true that Snyder wasn’t implicated in The Post’s story. Still, he must face consequences for what happened with the team. If he wasn’t aware of the behavior, he was negligent. If he was, he wilfully ignored it. He may not have participated in it, but given how long the culture was allegedly in place, he should have known about it and tried to put a stop to it. Simply put, it’s his responsibility as owner to do so.

Snyder deserves whatever is coming his way. But at this point, it looks more like a monetary loss than anything else. For a billionaire team owner, that won’t amount to all that much — unless the potential fine is unprecedented.