Washington’s professional football franchise is under fire on Thursday, and for far more than the unusually slow proceedings with respect to its impending name change.
Will Hobson and Liz Clarke of the Washington Post published an article detailing years of employee misconduct and mistreatment. The article also includes numerous allegations of “sexual harassment and verbal abuse.” One such incident involved one of the team’s male trainers.
Sickening. pic.twitter.com/uSHqCHOYlL
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) July 16, 2020
The article also includes a plethora of accounts suggesting Washington owner Dan Snyder had built such a toxic environment ever since he bought the team in 1999.
Indeed, it is extremely concerning to hear about the conduct of male employees, and the buck hardly appears to stop with trainers.
Rhiannon Walker of The Athletic said former Director of Pro Personnel Alex Santos tried to court her and made inappropriate advances (via Hobson and Clarke).
Santos kept attempting to flirt for several minutes and told Walker he would “wear me down with his charm,” she recalled. Then he pinched her on the hip, in full view of other team employees and reporters, she said. Walker felt humiliated, she recalled, and concerned some people who saw what had happened would think she had welcomed the attention.
“It felt like pretty much the worst thing in the world,” Walker said. “He didn’t care. He thought it was funny.”
Santos and Richard Mann II, another former employee implicated in the report, were fired last week.
Washington’s training staff had previously come under fire for mishandling Trent Williams’ cancerous growth. But the transgressions appear to extend well beyond football, including predatory behavior.
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