Washington Football owner Dan Snyder issued a statement Wednesday in response to the latest Washington Post expose detailing alleged sexual harassment within the organization.
The Post's report — published earlier Wednesday afternoon — serves as a scathing critique of Snyder's stewardship of the organization, directly implicating Snyder as having engaged in misconduct, something a previous Post expose published in July fell short of.
The Post's latest report chronicles misconduct dating as far back as 2004, five years into Snyder's ownership of the team, and includes personal accounts from 25 women describing their experiences with sexual harassment while working for the organization.
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Between the two reports, 42 women have alleged being harassed while working for the organization. In the hours since The Post published its latest report, cries for Snyder to sell the team — from fans and media alike — have heightened to a fever pitch.
The first two graphs of Snyder's statement read like any sensible corporate response to a crisis. When you hit the third graph is where things really go off the rails.
"The behavior described in the Washington Post’s latest story has no place in our franchise, or in our society," Snyder says to open his statement. "While I was unaware of these allegations until they surfaced in the media, I take full responsibility for the culture of our organization. Even before today’s article, I have begun taking any and all steps necessary to ensure that the Washington Football Team is an organization that is diverse, inclusive and respectful of all.
"I have admittedly been too hands-off as an owner and allowed others to have day-to-day control to the detriment of our organization. Going forward I am going to be more involved, and we have already made major changes in personnel bringing in new leadership to drive cultural transformation on and off the field. In addition, we are assembling a world class team of external advisors to both investigate these allegations and create an actionable and measurable plan to change our culture."
"The Washington Post article reads like a 'hit job' relying on unnamed sources and allegations that are largely ten to twenty years old," Snyder continued. "We attempted to engage with the Washington Post to provide them with the facts, but those facts clearly didn’t align with their narrative. There are former employees on the record disputing many of these claims, and yet they still appear in print. It is clear that there are other negative agendas at work in this reporting."
Snyder went on to question the accuser who went on record with The Post, who alleged that in 2004, Snyder approached her about joining his close friend in a hotel room so they "could get to know each other better."
"We are disappointed that Ms. Scourby would speak to the newspaper but never bring any of these allegations to management’s attention, particularly since she is still part of our organization as a volunteer with our cheerleaders," Snyder said in his statement. "I want to unequivocally state that this never happened. Ms. Scourby did not report this alleged incident to anyone at the team in 2004, in her 8 years as a cheerleader, or at any time in the past 16 years."
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"Furthermore, I do not have any knowledge of the ten-year-old videos referenced in the story," Snyder continued. "I did not request their creation and I never saw them. There are former employees on the record stating that this did not happen. The unnamed sources who claim it did happen are relying on three degrees of hearsay. After an extensive review of our video archives, we believe these videos to be unauthorized or fraudulent. We requested that the Post provide us with copies of these videos to be forensically evaluated and authenticated, but The Washington Post refused to do so.
"This article is riddled with questionable and unnamed sources, decades old allegations and is not a reflection of The Washington Football Team today. I am going to work relentlessly to improve all aspects of the Washington Football Team and make this an organization that sets a positive example that we can all be proud of."