The Washington Football Team has been hit with an ugly scene after ugly scene this offseason. And Wednesday, the Washington Post released a report detailing lewd cheerleader videos and sexist rules in the team’s workplace.
Lewd cheerleader videos, sexist rules: Ex-employees decry Washington’s NFL team workplace https://t.co/rfGfLRuMiC
— Kevin B. Blackistone (@ProfBlackistone) August 26, 2020
The article opens by telling sordid stories of a 2008 cheerleaders photo shoot for a swimsuit calendar.
What the cheerleaders didn’t know was that another video, intended strictly for private use, would be produced using footage from that same shoot. Set to classic rock, the 10-minute unofficial video featured moments when nipples were inadvertently exposed as the women shifted positions or adjusted props.
The lewd outtakes were what Larry Michael, then the team’s lead broadcaster and a senior vice president, referred to as “the good bits” or “the good parts,” according to Brad Baker, a former member of Michael’s staff. Baker said in an interview that he was present when Michael told staffers to make the video for team owner Daniel Snyder.
“Nothing can be further from the truth. I was never asked to nor did I ask someone to compile videos as you described,” Michael told the Post.
Snyder and his team did not respond to repeated requests from the newspaper.
The Washington Post obtained a copy of the 2008 video from another former employee, along with a similar outtakes video from the squad’s swimsuit calendar shoot in the Dominican Republic in 2010 that included a close-up of one cheerleader’s pubic area, obscured only by gold body paint.
In addition, a former broadcasting producer for the team told The Post that Michael ordered that the 2010 video be burned to a DVD titled “For Executive Meeting.” The former producer did not recall Michael mentioning Snyder. Both former employees spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation. Michael denied knowledge of any such videos.
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