The Washington Football Team paid $1.6 million in 2009 to settle a sexual misconduct allegation against team owner Dan Snyder, according to the Washington Post. The payment was made to a woman who used to work for the team. The incident occurred on Snyder’s private plane when flying back from the Academy Country Music Awards in Las Vegas.
The woman reportedly made “certain allegations” in April 2002 and was later fired. However, as mentioned by USA Today, her personnel file was changed to show she voluntarily resigned. The settlement was signed on July 22, 2009, by Snyder’s attorney and two other team executives. This comes a few months after the Post reported accusations from 15 women who said they were sexually harassed by team executives while employed by the organization. Snyder was not accused by the 15 women.
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“We’re trying to create a new culture here,” Washington coach Ron Rivera said in July. “We’re hoping to get people to understand that they need to judge us on where we are and where we’re going, as opposed to where we’ve been.” Rivera then said the team has to “move forward” and there are “policies that we will follow and that we have an open-door policy with no retribution.” Rivera then stated, “my daughter works for the team and I sure as hell am not going to allow any of this!”
Washington has yet to comment on the Snyder allegation, but when the Post broke the story on the 15 women being harassed by executives, the team released a statement. “The Washington Redskins football team takes issues of employee conduct seriously,” the team said. “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.”
It’s not certain if the NFL will punish Snyder. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wrote: “Now that the cat has exited the bag, it doesn’t matter. (However, don’t be surprised if the uber-litigious Snyder scorches the earth on multiple points of the globe in search of anyone who has responsibility for speaking out of school.) Snyder potentially faces the same problem former Panthers owner Jerry Richardson encountered three years ago, when SI.com reported on four supposedly confidential settlement agreements arising from Richardson’s behavior.”
