NFL Fines Washington Football Team $10M After Year-Long Culture Investigation

The punishment for the Washington Football Team doesn’t exactly fit the crime.

Last summer, multiple former WFT employees came forward with allegations of sexual harassment, with accusations and complaints spanning 15 years. It was all exposed by The Washington Post in July 2020, and the league announced in August it would launch an independent investigation. Amid the investigation, the team reached a settlement with former cheerleaders who were unknowingly filmed for “lewd videos” for team owner Dan Snyder.

That investigation, led by attorney Beth Wilkinson, has concluded. As a result, the NFL fined the Washington Football Team a measly $10 million. And the NFL said the money will be “used to support organizations committed to character education, anti-bullying, healthy relationships and related topics.”

Every senior executive will undergo workplace conduct training, covering diversity and inclusion, LGBTQ issues, unconscious bias and more. The club has a laundry list of 10 recommendations from Wilkinson, which span “creating a formal protocol for reporting allegations” and “create a formal onboarding process for new hires.”

Frankly, it seems more like a to-do list that should have already been in place rather than something that comes as a result of a major, systemic sexual harassment scandal. The league office will receive progress reports as the Washington Football Team starts to implement the recommendations.

Co-CEO Tanya Snyder will handle day-to-day team operations and will represent the Washington Football Team at league activities “for at least the next several months,” while Dan Snyder will take a less forward-facing role and manage “a new stadium plan and other matters.”

But that’s it. There’s no loss of draft picks and no suspensions.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell “concluded that for many years the workplace environment at the Washington Football Team, both generally and particularly for women, was highly unprofessional” and “ownership and senior management paid little or no attention to these issues.”

His words are empty, however, considering his punishment is meaningless. A $10 million fine is nothing to an organization that ranked 19th on Forbes’ list of the most valuable sports teams at $3.5 billion.

If that’s not appalling enough, consider this: The New England Patriots were fined and lost a draft pick for filming the Cincinnati Bengals’ sideline in 2020. David Mondillo, the videographer who was caught recording the sideline, was fired by the team before the league banned him indefinitely.

With the Washington Football Team handed this punishment, or lack thereof, the league is making clear that its continued claims to prioritize diversity and an inclusive workplace are just for show.