Tanya Snyder, the Washington Football Team’s co-CEO and wife of Daniel Snyder, appeared on ESPN reporter Adam Schefter’s podcast and addressed a tumultuous past year: the WFT was under an NFL investigation following dozens of accusations of workplace misconduct and culture which tolerated rampant sexual harassment.
In the interview, Tanya Snyder did not offer an apology to the dozens of women who came forward to detail their experiences and at times seemed to attempt to pass her and her husband off as the victims.
"It's been one of the most difficult years in mine, Dan and, I know my family's lives,” Tanya Snyder told Schefter. “I think being on the other side of where we are and learning just a tremendous amount, my style and my wish is to turn all of these into blessings, to make the most of where we are today.
"We're 100 percent owners and we're in a much stronger position to make each and every change that we need to make. So for that, I'm very excited,” she told ESPN. “It’s hard. I get a lump in my throat, and it's a cross between a crime show and a nightmare movie, but I'm here to tell you that today I know we are doing everything possible. And I think where we've ended up and where we're heading, I couldn't be more excited. So for that, I think it's a blessing."
Schefter followed up about the point of a lump in her throat asking where that comes from?
"Well, I just think it's the pain from our family, from my children, and just a lot of the tough times that we've gone through. And just as you know, the media... is what it is. Everybody is going to say whatever,” Tanya Snyder responded. “And I guess when you have a void and you don't have your voice out there, people can say whatever. And that has been the case. So and that's why I mean."
The Team 980’s Kevin Sheehan noted on Wednesday that in the course of the interview, Tanya Snyder, “never once acknowledges the 42 women in those two Post stories, all of those allegations” or the league’s statement which detailed a hostile and unprofessional workplace.
Sheehan is referring to a statement from the NFL which came after Beth Wilkinson's review, announced a $10 million fine, led to Tanya Snyder’s assumption of day-to-day operations of the franchise and pained a damning picture of the Snyder family’s failure.
“The Commissioner concluded that for many years the workplace environment at the Washington Football Team, both generally and particularly for women, was highly unprofessional," the league's statement read. "Bullying and intimidation frequently took place and many described the culture as one of fear, and numerous female employees reported having experienced sexual harassment and a general lack of respect in the workplace."
“Ownership and senior management paid little or no attention to these issues,” the NFL's statement continued. “In some instances, senior executives engaged in inappropriate conduct themselves, including use of demeaning language and public embarrassment.”
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For Sheehan, this is where Tanya Snyder failed to take any accountability for her role and her husband’s role in this failure. "She never once mentions the alleged victims in all of this,” he added.
“And when she says ‘we’re now 100 percent owners,’ that is straight from the Dan Snyder ‘it’s everyone else’s fault, not ours'” playbook, Sheehan said.
Snyder and his family have been the majority owners of the franchise for the last 21 years and have had complete control over what happens inside Ashburn Sheehan added the presence of minority partners had no bearing on the workplace culture that was the subject of the Wilkinson investigation.
“This organization has been run by Dan Snyder for 21 years,” Sheehan said. “Everything that this organization was accused of by the league, via the Beth Wilkinson investigation, is on the majority ownership. ‘We’re 100 percent owners now.’ I hope she, like her husband, doesn’t think we’re that stupid to believe that the problem was all [former minority owners] Dwight Schar, Fred Smith, and Bob Rothman. Or Bruce Allen or anybody else that came before. Mike Shanahan or Jim Zorn. Not falling for that and you shouldn’t either.
“At some point,” Sheehan continues, Tanya or Dan Snyder need to say, “It is our fault, we have run it poorly. We’ve made mistake after mistake. We’ve treated people poorly in this organization, both in it and outside of it. We’ve been arrogant beyond description. We have made it very difficult for women in this organization. We were wrong, we apologize, we’re going to make it better.”
Sheehan concludes by noting “there’s always been this constant recurring theme it’s not ever them, it’s always somebody else.”
“But at some point, you can’t blame former minority shareholders, you can’t blame the media,” Sheehan said of the Snyders, “you've gotta look in the mirror and say ‘it’s us.’”
Listen to Kevin's full take on Tanya Snyder's interview here:
Follow @BenKrimmel and @Team980 for the latest.
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