Tag: workplace culture

Antonio Gibson is excited for a fresh start for the Commanders

Antonio Gibson spoke on some of Washington’s issues and how he’s embracing the change.

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In case you’ve lived under a rock over the last 20 months, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the Washington Commanders. There was the name change, sexual harassment accusations, another name change, ownership issues, alleged financial improprieties, and much more.

So what does one of Washington’s top players think of the current state of the Washington Commanders?

This week, running back Antonio Gibson spoke to Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network and believes winning would solve some of Washington’s woes.

“We get a lot of backlash on the team,” Gibson said. “We’re tired of it. We just got to show ’em. We don’t get that talk if we’re winning games, we got to start winning games, and people forget about all that. That’s what we plan on doing.”

You can’t blame Gibson or any of Washington’s players or coaches for the team’s continuous scandals. None of the current coaches, players, or front office had anything to do with the past issues. The one constant is owner Daniel Snyder.

Last month, head coach Ron Rivera spoke of the ongoing criticisms of the franchise and admitted he was tired of it. Rivera, like Gibson, did acknowledge winning solves a lot of things while the NFL and government figure out the other stuff.

Gibson is excited about some of the recent changes, including the new name and uniforms.

“It’s a change with the team,” Gibson said. “I feel like we’re making a lot of changes. We’re building. We’re working to change our whole organization around. It’s a new start. We’re going to rock with it. I love the new uniforms and ready to get out here and show people what we got.”

Gibson has the right attitude. All you can do is embrace the changes. At some point, things with the franchise will get better. Right? It sure feels like it can’t get any worse.

Gibson is entering his third NFL season in 2022 and finished with over 1,000 yards rushing for the first time last season.

Commanders under investigation for alleged ‘financial improprieties’

Congress is now looking into alleged financial improprieties by the Commanders.

Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera said he was “tired” of the outside noise and negative stories surrounding his team earlier this week from the NFL’s owner’s meetings.

Since that time, Washington has been in the news on back-to-back days — and not for football reasons. On Wednesday, former Washington quarterback Alex Smith went on the “Rich Eisen Show” and was asked about any advice he could give Carson Wentz and the conversation turned to Washington’s off-field drama.

On Thursday, more bad news for the Commanders as the Washington Post revealed that congressional committee overseeing the sexual harassment in Washington’s workplace, is also now looking into alleged financial improprieties, per Liz Clarke, Paul Kane and Mark Maske.

The allegations emerged as the committee reviewed over 80,000 documents into the toxic workplace investigation and interviewed numerous witnesses.

Details of the alleged financial improprieties were not revealed, but the investigation will continue to move forward.

“The investigation is going forward,” said Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, chair of the committee.

Congress’ investigation into Washington’s workplace culture and alleged financial improprieties comes at the same time as the NFL’s second investigation of the Commanders in less than two years.

Beth Wilkinson initially investigated Washington’s toxic workplace culture for 10 months before presenting her findings to the NFL. However, there were no written reports provided at the NFL and Washington’s request.

Earlier this year, new allegations emerged against owner Daniel Snyder, which is now a part of the NFL’s investigation, led by Mary Jo White.

Congress sets deadline for NFL to release Washington investigation findings

Congress gives the NFL a Feb 14th deadline to release all findings into the investigation of Washington’s toxic workplace culture.

If Washington owner Dan Snyder thought a new team name and logo would help everyone forget about the franchise’s past, that’s not the case.

One day after Washington unveiled its new team name, logo and uniforms at FedEx Field, six former team employees testified before Congress at a roundtable concerning the investigation into Washington’s toxic workplace culture under Snyder.

New allegations emerged against Snyder at Wednesday’s roundtable, which Snyder responded to, acknowledging past issues with the franchise, but strongly denied the new claims.

More news was released Friday as Congress has set a deadline of Feb. 14 for the NFL to release everything regarding its year-long investigation of Washington.

More details emerged from Congress’ investigation into Washington, via Tisha Thompson of ESPN. According to Thompson, Snyder must OK the release of the findings:

The NFL may not be able to publicly release the findings of its internal investigation of the Washington Commanders without the explicit permission of owner Daniel Snyder, according to a document released Friday morning by the congressional committee investigating the NFL.

When Washington initially hired attorney Beth Wilkinson in 2020 to investigate the team’s workplace culture, it requested a written report. However, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell “personally instructed that Ms. Wilkinson was to present him with oral, not written, findings in a stark departure from the League’s previous practices,” per a statement from the congressional committee Friday morning.

 

Roger Goodell says Washington owner Dan Snyder didn’t ‘interfere’ in Wilkinson investigation

Roger Goodell says Daniel Snyder did not interfere in the investigation into Washington’s toxic workplace culture.

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One day after a new Washington Post released an explosive report suggesting WFT owner Daniel Snyder attempted to impede Beth Wilkinson’s investigation into Washington’s toxic workplace culture, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke on the matter Wednesday.

From the NFL’s owners’ meetings in Irving, Texas, Goodell said Snyder did not attempt to interfere in the investigation.

“We went through a very lengthy period of investigation and discussions,” Goodell said via John Keim of ESPN.

“The one thing I can say with 100% assurance is that it didn’t interfere with the work that our investigator did. We were able to access all the people that she wanted to access, have multiple conversations with those people. There’s always a little bit of a tug and a pull with particularly lawyers and law firms. That’s something that I think we were able to overcome and make sure we came to the right conclusion.”

Of course, Goodell continues to protect Snyder. Why? Because Goodell and the NFL know there is a lot more in those 650,000 emails, and it would implicate multiple high-profile NFL people. Much more than just Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen.

Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform have urged the NFL to release the emails over the last few months. Thus far, the NFL has refused.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, a member of the committee, spoke to ESPN.

They’ve been producing documents; they’ve been doing it on a regular basis. But what we learned yesterday only points to the need for a lot more information from them. … I’d like them to step up the volume and the nature of the documents.

Buckle up, as this isn’t going away anytime soon, much to the chagrin of Goodell, Snyder, and the rest of the NFL’s owners.

Raiders owner Mark Davis believes there should written report of Washington investigation

Raiders owner Mark Davis believes there should be a written report from the investigation into Washington’s workplace culture that cost Jon Gruden his job.

Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis is the first NFL owner to publicly say there should be a written report from the NFL’s investigation into Washington’s toxic workplace.

“Probably. Yeah, I think that there should be,” Davis said Wednesday when asked if he would like to see a written report, per Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post. “Especially with some of the things that were charged. Yeah, I believe so. I think people deserve it, especially the people there were ‘victims.’”

Davis was in the lobby of the New York hotel where NFL owners meetings had taken place over the last two days.

Davis, of course, was the owner most impacted by the leaked emails from former Washington team president Bruce Allen. His former coach, Jon  Gruden, sent numerous offensive emails back and forth to Allen when Gruden worked as an analyst for ESPN. Gruden took over as head coach of the Raiders in 2018 and resigned earlier this month.

Davis was asked if he had any recent conversations with Gruden.

“He’s hurt, he’s really hurt. I understand that. But he understands the ramifications of what he said,” Davis said of Gruden, per USA TODAY.

The Raiders have a long history of battling with the NFL that goes back to when Al Davis — Mark’s father — publicly sparred with the NFL for years.

“We’re Raiders. We’re used to this,” Mark Davis said.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated on Tuesday the league would not release details from the investigation into Washington.

 

Roger Goodell says Dan Snyder was ‘held accountable’

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says Washington owner Dan Snyder has been “held accountable.”

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Roger Goodell met with the media on Tuesday at the NFL league meetings, and, as you might expect, the Washington Football Team was a hot topic.

Two former Washington Football Team employees came to the lobby at the Intercontinental New York Barclay Hotel in Manhatten, New York,  where the meetings are being held, “with a stack of letters multiple pages long, asking for the findings of the report into the team’s workplace misconduct be made public,” according to Seth Wickersham of ESPN.

The NFL has refused to release the results of Beth Wilkinson’s yearlong investigation into Washington’s toxic workplace culture. Earlier this month, several offensive emails from former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden to former Washington Football Team president Bruce Allen were leaked, costing Gruden his job.

Several former WFT employees and now members of Congress want the NFL to make public the results of Wilkinson’s investigation.

On Tuesday, Goodell doubled down, but not for the reason you may think.

“We’re very conscious of making sure we’re protecting those who came forward,” Goodell said via Dan Graziano of ESPN. “That was a very high priority.”

Goodell also stated the league had held Snyder accountable for Washington’s toxic workplace culture that spanned throughout his ownership.

“I do think he’s been held accountable,” Goodell said of Snyder. “More importantly, steps were put in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Snyder named his wife, Tanya, co-CEO of Washington over the summer and agreed to step away from the team’s day-to-day operations for a period of time. The team was also fined $10 million — not Snyder personally.

This issue isn’t going away for Snyder or the NFL anytime soon.