Survivors Describe Sexual Abuse and Retaliation They Experienced as Employees of the Washington Football Team at Congressional Roundtable, and Call for Report’s Release
(Washington, D.C.) Today, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, held a roundtable with six former Washington Football Team (WFT) employees to highlight issues of workplace misconduct and the National Football League’s (NFL) failure to take steps to prevent sexual harassment and abuse within the WFT under the leadership of owner Dan Snyder. The convening’s purpose is to inform potential legislative solutions that will increase protections for all workers from sexual harassment and discrimination.
In February 2021, after conducting a yearlong investigation into sexual harassment allegations against WFT managers and executives, the National Football League (NFL) fined the team $10 million dollars (a miniscule amount given the owner’s enormous wealth) and refused to release the investigation’s findings. The National Football League’s Commissioner Roger Goodell never responded to a February 2021 letter by the National Women’s Law Center and several advocates that urged him to release the investigation’s report into the sexual harassment allegations by more than 40 current and former employees of the WFT. The TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund continues to support the legal representation of several of the survivors who alleged they had been sexually harassed on the job by the management of the WFT.
The following is a statement by Emily Martin, NWLC Vice-President for Education and Workplace Justice:
“Today, six brave survivors described their first-hand accounts of the rampant and brazen culture of abuse that the Washington Football Team’s management fostered and condoned—and successfully kept under wraps for decades, by bullying employees into silence. Without the courage of the many survivors who have come forward at great personal risk to tell their stories of sexual abuse and retaliation, the despicable failure of leadership at both the Washington Football Team and the National Football League to be accountable would still be a secret. It’s outrageous that one year after an extensive investigation of the Washington Football Team was completed, its full findings have yet to be released. As several survivors demanded today: ‘Release the report. Transparency must be the standard before full accountability can follow.’”
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The TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund—housed at and administered by the National Women’s Law Center Fund, LLC—was founded to help create safe, equitable and respectful workplaces for all.
