Washington Redskin’s Owner Dan Snyder Accused of Propositioning Cheerleaders; Treated Women “Like Servants”

The Washington Post has provided more details from its probe into the allegations of a toxic work environment behind the scenes of the Washington Redskin’s football team, including new allegations against team owner Dan Snyder.

According to the Bleacher Report, the Post interviewed over 100 current and former employees. It examined internal documents and records from the team, obtaining evidence that portrays Snyder as allegedly “[presiding] over an organization in which women say they have been marginalized, discriminated against and exploited.”

In the words of the notorious outlet, “This is what the NFL gets for not scraping Daniel Snyder off its shoe before now.” Especially now that the soft porn videos displaying cheerleaders and the phrase “the good bits” has landed in the hands of the Washington Post. According to the publication, outtakes of nipples and crotches accidentally shown but intentionally collected were captured for the pleasure of some of the “pervs” in the Washington football organization’s upper management.

And now Snyder’s allies and owners have been reluctant to force a sale of the Washington Redskins due to his “shoddy” business practices, all because they never got rid of him.

Former cheerleader Tiffany Bacon Scourby was one of the many who spoke out about her experience while being associated with the organization and recalled the time she was at a 2004 charity event at the Washington Hilton. It was then that Snyder suggested she go upstairs to a hotel room with one of his old high school buddies, Anthony Roberts.

Scourby said Snyder motioned over to Roberts, an ophthalmologist for the team, and said, “go upstairs and get to know each other better.” Following the proposition, she discussed it with cheerleader director Donald Wells, who admitted to the Post that Scourby was “more or less propositioned.”

Susan Miller was another person who spoke out against the billionaire and his franchise. She served as the president of an employee referral agency in Virginia. She provided more insight into how bad things had gotten when she explained that she stopped directing people to work for the Washington Football Team because of the general atmosphere as well as Snyder’s behavior.

“He denigrated people,” she said. “He treated women like servants.”

In July, the Post interviewed 15 women who accused team officials Larry Michael and Alex Santos of sexual harassment and verbal abuse. Michael was the team’s former senior vice president of content and radio broadcast, and Santos was the former director of pro personnel. Notably, at that time, the Post stated that “none of the women accused Snyder or former longtime team president Bruce Allen of inappropriate behavior with women, but they expressed skepticism that the men were unaware of the behavior they allege.”

Subsequent to the report going public, Snyder issued a statement confirming the organization was bringing in an outside law firm “to do a full, unbiased investigation and make any and all requisite recommendations.”

But, the July investigation was not the first time the team faced backlash for how it treated female employees. In May 2018, the New York Times’ Juliet Mancur broke the news that during a 2013 cheerleading squad trip to Costa Rica for the team’s calendar shoot, the franchise allowed some sponsors and suite holders to obtain up-close access to the photoshoots and some sponsors selected cheerleaders to be their “personal escorts at a nightclub.”

It doesn’t stop there; female interns are said to have been treated like “fresh meat to a pack of wolves” while interning at the team’s headquarters, in an environment that consisted of constant unwanted advances and pervasive harassment. It got so bad that the women formed a secret support group.

The revelations suggest exactly what the Post has highlighted that due to the team’s upper management negligence, they now find themselves guilty by association for not nipping the problem in the bud a while back. Furthermore, if they choose not to “overthrow” Snyder from his throne, they will “own his franchise’s misdeeds, past, and future.”

According to the NFL rules set in place, owners can vote a forced sale if one “has been or is guilty of conducted detrimental to the welfare of the League or professional football.” How Snyder’s fellow owners respond to the new discovery will say a lot.
People would like to see beyond the routine punishment of an NFL in-house investigation, which is followed by a commissioner fine. Instead, they want to see justice that will show those in power that they can’t do anything they want and get away with it.