Nearly one year after Beth Wilkinson launched her investigation into the workplace culture of the Washington Football Team, an attorney representing more than 40 former employees who participated in that investigation says she's heard "nothing" from the NFL about its progress.
"I have 40-plus clients who participated in an investigation almost a year ago, and they want to know what has happened with their information and what the league has found, and we haven't heard a word," attorney Lisa Banks told The Sports Junkies on Wednesday. "We have heard nothing."
"We really believe that in order for there to be change here and accountability, there has to be transparency," she said. "We need to know what happened so that we can understand what the NFL is doing, or assess what the NFL is doing, to determine whether it's appropriate."
Washington owner Dan Snyder is believed to be at the center of the investigation, as overseer of a workplace culture where sexual harassment was reportedly all too commonplace. On Tuesday, Snyder named his wife, Tanya Snyder, co-CEO of the Washington Football Team.
In a statement to The Washington Post on Tuesday, Banks and legal partner Debra Katz referred to Tanya Snyder's new role as "a shallow attempt to show progress without making any meaningful changes" and "a transparent move by Dan Snyder to try to placate" the NFL and his fellow owners.
Banks again took the opportunity to call upon the Washington Football Team and NFL to "make the full findings of the independent investigation public and act on Wilkinson's recommendations to provide both transparency and accountability."
"It's another PR move. We've seen a series of them. This isn't really a surprise," Banks told The Sports Junkies. "We've seen [Tanya's] name pop up in some statements along the way. But obviously, I think we all understand that making your wife or any other family member co-CEO of your company doesn't really achieve any meaningful change."
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"And, frankly, that's what we need here. We need meaningful change," she said. "We need accountability for what has happened over the last 20 years. And right now, my clients and I are sort of beating our heads against the wall because we don't know anything and nothing has happened."
July 16 marks the one year anniversary of the first of a series of explosive reports from The Post, which detailed the allegations of sexual harassment and verbal abuse of more than a dozen former team employees in Ashburn.
One day after that initial report was published, Dan Snyder hired Wilkinson to investigate his own workplace culture.
On August 26, 2020, The Post published a second report, this one detailing allegations of sexual harassment made by an additional 25 women. That report also revealed that outtakes taken from a 2008 swimsuit calendar shoot featuring Washington cheerleaders were used to produce lewd videos, without the cheerleaders' knowledge.
Days later, the NFL assumed oversight over Wilkinson's investigation from Snyder.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in February that Wilkinson was "nearing the completion" of her investigation. At the time, Goodell said Wilkinson's findings would be shared with the team and with "others," but would not specify whether they would be released to the public.
Banks says there is no guarantee that her or her clients will be allowed to view the findings of Wilkinson's report.
"We have asked to see it. We've demanded to see it," Banks said. "But the NFL hasn't committed one way or the other, and they've released a number of reports in the past. Most of the reports of the investigations they do, they release. This one they won't tell us whether they'll release it or not. The most we've ever seen came from your outlet, when we saw what appeared to be a draft, or information from a draft of that report."
"So you haven't asked Beth Wilkinson's office for the information," asked Junkies host Jason Bishop. "You're specifically asking the NFL, correct?"
"Right. Well, I've asked the Wilkinson firm, but they're not gonna give it to me. They can't give it to me," Banks said. "No, it's got to come from the NFL. The NFL has to release it. And for whatever reason, right now they seem more intent on protecting Dan Snyder than in taking care of all of these men and women who came forward at a great personal risk. It's a shame."
Banks says she has considered the possibility that Tanya Snyder was appointed co-CEO as an insurance policy, of sorts, in the instance that Wilkinson's investigation results in some sort of punishment for Dan Snyder.
"I think he does everything for a reason, and I think the timing of anything he does isn't usually coincidental," she said. "So, it may be that the report is about to be officially presented to the NFL and they're going to take some sort of action, and he wants to placate the NFL. I don't know. It may be that he's put her in place so that she stays in place if he's suspended. It could be any of those things. The problem is we just don't know what's happening, and the NFL has refused to even talk about the process or the timing."
"So they don't even return your calls or emails," asked Bishop.
"Well, no. Not really," Banks said. "We're writing letters, we're making phone calls, but they're not prepared to give us any information beyond what they put out in public, which really isn't much. Really, we don't know what's happening and, like everyone, we're left to wait."
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