"I do think he's been held accountable" - Roger Goodell speaks out on WFT owner Daniel Snyder
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is shielding Washington Football Team owner Dan Snyder, as are all the other owners and the league itself.
After a six-hour meeting with all 32 owners, Goodell stated the following to the press:
"I do think he's [Snyder] been held accountable. More importantly, steps were put in place to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Goodell's statement raises more questions than answers. For instance, how was Snyder held accountable? And what steps did Goodell and the NFL put in place to prevent this from happening again?
Snyder's punishment was a fine that amounts to pocket change, $10 million (his net worth is around $2.6 billion). The NFL, in theory, also prohibited him from day-to-day business.
But this soon begins to crack as a punishment when considering that now he is "only" the co-CEO, sharing the job with his wife, Tanya Snyder, and can still focus on how he could raise public money for a new stadium.
Statement from attorneys Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, who represent 40 former Washington Football Team employees: https://t.co/8vfb6CISX7
Clearly, Goodell and the NFL did not punish or hold Snyder accountable. Not in a genuine or meaningful way, at least.
Goodell goes ahead on lying
In addition to lying that Snyder "has been held accountable," Goodell stated that the reason there are no written reports about the league's findings on the WFT/Snyder investigation is to "protect those who came forward."
"We're very conscious of making sure we're protecting those who came forward. That was a very high priority."
Again, that is a lie by Goodell. One that Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, the attorneys for 40 former WFT employees who participated in the investigation, promptly debunked:
"They did not come forward because you offered them "security, privacy and anonymity" as you stated yesterday. While many who came forward feared retaliation by Dan Snyder, and therefore requested their names to be kept confidential, they never envisioned that all their efforts and the efforts of Beth Wilkinson and her team would result in no written report of findings, and no real accountability for Dan Snyder or the WFT. Had they known this, they would not have participated.
"You have chosen to hide behind the "incredibly brave" women and men who came forward to try to justify your decision to protect the WFT and Dan Snyder from whatever is contained in those findings. You have misrepresented the wishes of our clients, and likely those of the other women and men who came forward, to justify your decision to bury what we know would be a damning report, having sat through dozens of interviews. Our clients came forward with details of the harassment and abuse that they suffered with the reasonable expectation that they and the public would be provided with the findings of the 10-month-long investigation."
Banks and Katz went a step further to prove how much of a lie Goodell told the public:
"The falsity of your premise is clearly illustrated by the 168-page report issued in August by New York Attorney General Letitia James regarding the allegation of sexual harassment against former Governor Andrew Cuomo. The names of the witnesses in that report were identified, including our client, and others were anonymized, such as "State Entity Employee #1." But the request for anonymity or confidentiality by some did not impact the ability of the Attorney General to produce and make public a comprehensive report of findings".
Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, the attorneys for 40 former WFT employees who participated in the investigation, wrote a letter to Roger Goodell to clarify that their clients took part in the probe with “the expectation that they and the public would be provided with the findings.” https://t.co/w1jvT92K2B
Goodell is lying, as is the NFL. No question about it; the mysteries are: how ugly is the report? And more importantly, will they ever tell the truth?