15 Women Allege Sexual Harassment by Redskin Employees and Snyder’s Inner Circle
The NFL should nuke that franchise.
Are we surprised? Isn't this the team that got blasted.for sending their cheerleaders off to be preyed upon?
That's every team. NFL Cheerleading is one step above human trafficking. OK, a couple of steps. But a not-too-distant cousin anyway.
More of an escort service, perhaps. I mean, there are very strange videos out there of cheerleaders being groped by well-known politicians. Either that's sexual assault by well-known politicians on video, or the NFL was running an escort service. I'm continually surprised nobody has taken those possibilities and run with them yet.
Also, NFL cheerleaders make $150 a game. For how woke the NFL is getting, they really seem to skip over the objectifying of women aspect.
Less than that sometimes, and they're forced to do overtime promotional work and often don't get paid a cent for it. Plus they have to pay their own expenses related to the job.
The waves of disclosures provoked some temporary public outrage, and in some cases, action. The Raiders swiftly tripled their cheerleaders' pay (granting them a whopping $9 an hour) and eventually settled with the lawsuit plaintiffs for $1.25 million. Several other teams came to similar agreements with their cheerleaders. And after their cheerleaders sued, the Bills stopped using cheerleaders and now features a drumline.
Yet four years later, it's clear that the needle has barely moved. In January, Time reported that "It is unusual for professional cheerleaders to earn more than a few thousand dollars per season, and a typical NFL cheerleader probably averages around $10 or less per hour over the course of a season. Meanwhile, the average NFL player’s annual salary is over $2 million." Many teams also charge potential cheerleaders for the privilege of auditioning.
And behind every woman who got the job, there are dozens who would take their place in a minute.
That doesn’t condone it, but it does call out how bizarre the industry is.
While the harassment is completely unacceptable and needs to be eliminated why should they pay cheerleaders more? If they can get a large group of people to pay to tryout and are willing to work for $150 per game then they clearly see enough value in the job to do it for that rate so why should they be paid more than that?
While you are bringing up a classic econ 101 supply and demand issue, it also goes back to should there be a respectable minimum wage for things like this considering how much the NFL does make every year.
While I'm a complete capitalist, if I am running such a hugely profitable enterprise, I would pay EVERYONE a nice wage. I would want my employees to be very proud, loyal, cherish their employment with my enterprise as, schmaltzy as that sounds.
Or just get rid of cheerleaders problem solved. Matter of fact the game just exploit human suffering and barbarism let’s not have people play it anymore. Grown ups can make their own Descisions right?
Yeah... George Westinghouse was well regarded for paying his workforce an above-average (for the time) working wage, which he merely called a 'fair wage'. When the bankers on the board of his electric company (you may have heard of it) decided to take it over (hostilely), one of the reasons cited was that he paid his workers too much.
It's nice that you say you'd pay workers a good wage. But I think it's a different story when the bankers that run a business' life tell you to stop, or they'll take it over. I completely agree with your sentiments, though - not trying to call BS on what you'd do. Just emphasizing that realty is often a different beast.
I agree with you East German Judge, I support your bid to to take over the Lions. but for the NFL, between:
1. The nature of cheerleading naturally leads to a lot of turnover, in fact NFL teams probably prefer turnover in their cheerleading squads, so loyalty doesn't mean much if I only want to employ you for 2-3 years.
and
2. Noone knows the cheerleaders so fans won't care whether or not you retain them. If I can replace just as easy as I can better compensate, and one puts more money in my pockets...
greed will always win out, as always
Not the Steelers, but they made up for it by keeping Roethlisberger after his sexual assault allegations. Got rid of Holmes for being a dope smoker, but kept Roethlisberger.
That was when I gave up on the NFL.
I've pronounced 'Roethlisberger' as 'Rapelisberger' since that incident. Pittsburgh fans (and there are many of them in/around the DC area) get mad at me...
One of my co-workers (dire hard 'Skins fan who is actually a good friend) refers to him that way. I briefly considered antagonizing him by asking about this Snyder issue, but thought there's no need as he's probably already read about it and it would serve no useful purpose. That and I suspect he is still traumatized by the impending name change.
You're right that NFL cheerleading is, let's just say, not exactly a crown jewel of the women's liberation movement, but the Redskins by all accounts are horrible even within that context (cf, the Costa Rica junket referenced above.)
Cheerleading in professional sports is supposed to be a stepping stone position for many of these women, but unfortunately it is almost always pure exploitation. The pay is shit and promises of connections to more lucrative opportunities in the entertainment industry are rarely met.
Women are given promises about future gigs and interactions with high profile modeling agencies, Hollywood agents, movies studios, etc. Many take the position in hopes of opening new doors, but in reality they end up being groped, harassed and worse by rich middle aged men involved with the teams.
I had a friend on the Lions cheerleading squad for 2 years straight and all she ever did was practice with her squad and perform on game days. There were a couple of events she attended outside of that but she brought her (now) husband to those. Also she was not in contact with players.
Obviously there may have been things behind the scenes she hasn't told me about but it isn't right to make vast generalizations/assumptions about a part of an industry that you know nothing about personally.
In reading the article, you'll see that Snyder himself was never accused of harassment, but...he created a belittling, abusive environment through his own personality and had no HR department to speak of for women to go to.
Snyder had to know what was going on. I may be biased because I lived in DC the first 10 years he owned the team, but that guy owned the team like a super fan. He was in the middle of everything, so I don't think they could keep anything secret from him.
It's still that way. He's worse than Jerry Jones, in a bad way...
Agreed, Bruce Allen was just the window dressing to mask Snyder's day to day meddling with the team.
Somebody remind me: Where does that buck stop again?
What a twerp
They tolerated the most miserable time because if they said anything they would be replaced?
The burden of human decency falls on us all. Don’t blame victims. You should be able to go to work and expect better than this.
I agree with you and I’ll take the downvotes but that’s what the quote is saying.
Your initial comment and then your reply make it look like you're mocking the idea that someone would be afraid to leave a job where they feel abused.
By the way, you'll notice the woman with the quote was there less than two years.
Ahh, the perfect name:
The Washington Chauvinists
or The Washington Pigs! Or Hogs.
The nickname of "The Hogs" for their 80s lineman makes more sense now...
Jeff Bevos really must wanna buy the team.
Your material is routinely dull and weak. Somewhere in your perfervid brain you know it. Desist.
"Only 15?" - MSU fans
and "Witch-hunt. This happens all over professional sports."
Don Draper would not understand why this is an issue...
Seriously - I hate this garbage. Have seen it at a few companies, and is not a positive and healthy work environment - for anyone. Male leaders who pull this shit tend to be slimy losers, regardless of their bank accounts.
While Don Draper is a womanizer outside of the office, From a workplace standpoint he’s all business. His secretary seduced him and they eventually got married, He rejected peggys advances in the first episode, and fought against Joan sleeping with a client to advance the firm. The rest of the firm is awful and he is indifferent.
Roger or Pete would be a much better examples they as he openly harassed women in the workplace and had office affairs.
Think you forgot the time Don slept with his secretary after his divorce, when she was trying to get his drunk ass home. He then had her transferred, I believe.
Love Don Draper - But he and that crew were pigs. LOL!
The Washington Foreskins
That nickname will only last eight days.
From this NY Times story: "The N.F.L. team in Washington has hired the law firm Wilkinson Walsh to review the claims..."
Also: "Beth Wilkinson, a founding partner of Wilkinson Walsh, confirmed in an email that her firm would conduct “an independent review of the team’s culture, policies and allegations of workplace misconduct.”"
Please enlighten me - how can one conduct an "independent" review when you've been hired by the guy that you're supposed to review? Isn't that the classic conflict of interest?
Not one word of questioning was in the article to help explain the unexplainable situation. Nor even to draw attention to the conflict. It's disheartening that the current state of 'journalism' is able to let that slide so easily...
Agreed, but Wilkinson won't do this for free. The NFL would have to pay for it otherwise. Same happened with Louis Freeh and Penn State. Penn State paid for that investigation.
Also, U of M hired WilmerHale to investigate Anderson.
Lawyer here. Most internal investigations are garbage -- see, e.g., Baylor -- designed to minimize liability for the company / show relevant authorities that you're being "proactive" to reduce the fine.
What they mean by independent is that Beth Wilkinson's job isn't on the line here and she's not affiliated with the team. (Compare to e.g. the Washington HR department running this investigation.)
e: Want to clarify what I mean by this. The lawyers are going to do an extremely thorough job; their most important responsibility is understanding what happened and providing an accurate assessment of the facts to management. What they put out publicly, in writing, etc (and how they spin it, etc) however will be entirely dependent on the client's goals. Thus M hiring WilmerHale, if their goal is to truly get to the bottom of things and resolve the situation, doesn't mean it's a sham. If M's primary goal is to minimize or shift liability, though, then hiring WilmerHale is not a good sign. I don't know what to make of M hiring a DC law firm instead of a local one.
What I find curious here is that, as far as I can tell, there's no litigation, the alleged harassers all left the organization, etc. Wonder what the purpose is?
Similarly, I am vaguely surprised that Godell isn't running this as a way to force to Snyder to exit. The Washington team has been systematically mismanaged (see the minority investors exiting -- do you know insanely awful you have to be as a business partner to get them to want to sell now when the team is printing money?), the political climate is even more inclined towards removing owners for bad personal behavior (see Donald Sterling, Kelley Loffler, removal of Jerry Richardson statute, etc).
Very good points by yourself and the ape known as RGard... In hindsight, I shouldn't have been so taken aback by an apparent conflict - the world is built on such things (see: K St lobby firms). That said, it probably would make more sense for Goodell's office to pay them, rather than the Redskins' ownership. If for no other reason than to make an attempt to avoid Rice-like PR in the afterwords...
Thanks. BTW, that's Pan troglodytes to you, buddy.
Goodell or somebody from the league did say they would work closely with Wilkinson. The decision on whether to try to oust Snyder or not will probably wait until her team is done with the investigation.
If they try, Snyder will fight this all the way to SCOTUS, I have no doubt.
I dunno, man. Snyder seems like an asshole, but he also seems very money focused. I'm sure he can get a song for the team, even more so if he delivers it promptly and quietly.
Hopefully Dan Snyder is forced out. Shouldn’t be owning that team.
Between this, the cheerleading scandal, and the Trent Williams cancer debacle it seems as though the leadership of this organization is completely inept. Not to mention they for some reason seem to have their whole starting roster injured every year. Remember when they let their young franchise QB play with a blown knee and it ruined his career? Remember when they refused to sign the other franchise QB they drafted in that same year because he wasn't good enough for them? All of this leads me to believe that Dan Snyder is the worst owner in American sports. Is anyone else even close?