As a sports ethics motivational speaker and sports ethics consultant, I am consistent in my insistence that no employee of a sports organization should ever try to “take the fall” or assist in the covering up of unethical behavior.
When any kind of cover-up occurs, it always comes back to haunt the person who thought they were being the good guy, the model employee or the assistant insider to the assistant coach. An employee cannot work their way up that way; not a DIII line coach or someone in marketing for a pro-hockey team.
The path to glory truly is littered with sycophant wannabe’s who kept their mouths shut when ethically they needed to step up. They were unwilling to pay the price and overcome their fears. People enabled Larry Nassar, Jerry Sandusky and once, even helped deflate footballs. And it all comes back to haunt.
Washington Commanders
The Washington Commanders (formerly your “Redskins,” may they rest in peace), are the unethical gift that keeps on giving. The House Oversight Committee plunked its governmental rear-end into the NFL and the Commanders in particular. They produced a report entitled: “Conduct Detrimental: How the NFL and the Washington Commanders Covered Up Decades of Sexual Misconduct.”
In the ponderous document, blame was laid at the feet of the former own, Dan Snyder. The paragraph in the report that was particularly troubling was: “The results of the Committee’s investigation, as laid out in this report, are clear: sexual harassment, bullying, and other toxic conduct pervaded the workplace at the Washington Commanders and were perpetuated by a culture of fear instilled by the Team’s owner.”
Most of us have worked in jobs where we were afraid of getting fired and many of us did the bidding for people whom we knew would never back us up. Dan Snyder is a rich man, the person who leaked the notes and emails of the investigation most probably isn’t. The materials leaked include ex-HC Jon Gruden’s racist materials were leaked. No one has stepped up to take credit.
NFL Columnist Charles Robinson writing for Yahoo! Sports (December 8, 2022) said:
Some pointed a finger at NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith, who had been the subject of one of Gruden’s derogatory screeds sent to then Washington team president Bruce Allen. Others surmised that it was NFL commissioner Roger Goodell or one of his charges at the league office, looking to make an example of Gruden for a string of racist, homophobic and misogynistic messages to Allen. Still others suggested that it might have been Allen himself, theorizing that he’d been so thoroughly burned by Washington team owner Dan Snyder…”
Who was motivated to leak the findings? It is not possible to know at this time. However, we do know this: the person who leaked materials is now subject to the full wrath of Gruden and his people. There’s a lot of money involved in this NFL game. If it has been “Roger Goodell or one of his charges…” then Gruden stands to become an exceptionally wealthy man. And the leaker? The leaker will be thrown under the weight of the story and no one will come to their rescue.
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