It was another eventful day in the saga of the NFL and Washington owner Daniel Snyder vs. Congress. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform established a Feb. 14 deadline for the league and Washington to release all the findings from Beth Wilkinson’s nearly yearlong investigation into Washington’s former toxic workplace.
While the deadline was met with silence from Washington, the NFL complied — sort of. According to Congress, the NFL did turn over documents by Monday’s deadline. But, just like the last time they turned over documents to Congress related to the investigation into Washington, it wasn’t a complete release.
On Tuesday, Congress released a statement, via Liz Clarke of The Washington Post, stating there would be further action if the NFL didn’t stop “hiding the results of the Wilkinson investigation.”
Here’s the statement:
We have been clear that the NFL must stop hiding the results of the Wilkinson investigation and fully comply with the Committee’s requests, or the Committee will have no choice but to take further action. The Chairs are committed to uncovering the truth about what happened within the Washington Commanders organization and how allegations were handled by the NFL in order to inform legislative efforts to make workplaces safe for everyone.
After last week’s drama in which Snyder said he would lead an investigation into himself — as ridiculous as that sounds — NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said no, the league would handle the investigation. Then, the NFL seemingly tossed Snyder under the bus, saying he was preventing the full release of the documents to Congress.
Yet, here we are again. While the NFL did toss Snyder under the bus, the league is being very selective in what documents Congress gets its hands on. Part of the reason the NFL has stood behind Snyder for so long is that Wilkinson’s investigation will cause trouble for the rest of the NFL. We’ve already seen former Raiders coach Jon Gruden lose his job.
We learned last week that the NFL and Washington entered into a “Common Interest Agreement” in which the league and Washington would join together for a mutual legal strategy in response to Wilkinson’s investigation, leaving Snyder the power to veto any information that can be released.
We’ve stated multiple times the NFL may be tired of Snyder, but they likely fear what he could share on the league and the rest of the owners if they vote to force him out.
Stay tuned.