Harassing female employees may not have been enough to get him fired, but Congress’ latest findings on Dan Snyder may finally bury the Washington Commanders owner. Washington’s former Vice President of Sales and Customer Service, Jason Friedman, has reportedly provided the House Oversight Committee with documentation that franchise owner Snyder has been pocketing cash owed to season ticket holders and other NFL teams. They might be able to overlook an abusive workplace culture, but cash is king in the NFL, and if Snyder was, in fact, stealing from his fellow owners, the league may be feeling more inclined to vote him out.
The House Oversight Committee has been investigating the team’s toxic workplace for several months, at first focusing on allegations made against Commanders’ executives from former (mostly female) employees regarding professional and sexual misconduct. They expanded their investigation to include financial misconduct after receiving tips from former employees — in particular, from Friedman, who worked with the team for 24 years.
According to Friedman, per the Washington Post, Snyder and the front office were withholding ticket revenue from visiting teams by attributing the reported income to outside events, including concerts and college football games. In the NFL, 40 percent of all revenue is meant to be distributed in a visiting team fund to be shared among the 32 teams.
They also withheld refundable ticket deposits from season ticket holders, who paid the equivalent of security deposits before leasing their seats. Once the lease was up, the deposit was meant to be paid back, and the committee estimated that the Commanders owe as much as $5 million to season ticket holders.
Friedman says that the Commanders were keeping two books — one with the real accounts, and one with the doctored numbers that went to the league. The club has categorically denied every allegation and has accused Friedman of perjury, but there’s an interesting wrench thrown in this one — during the initial NFL investigation (the one that was never finalized with a written report because, you know, Goodell), the former Director of Marketing and Client Relations told attorney Beth Wilkinson that she suspected that the team had doctored ticket revenue numbers back in 2020.
Of course, the NFL totally screwed over everyone who came forward to testify against the Commanders’ front office during the Wilkinson investigation, covering up all their findings and preventing any written report, which was what initially set off the alarm bells that prompted Congress to investigate the franchise. The league itself, which has allegedly been getting robbed, has yet to do any meaningful investigating or execute any legitimate consequences. We already know they don’t care about violence against women, but maybe this financial misconduct allegation will finally shake the league awake as to what’s going on in Washington.
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