CAN HE BE STOPPED?

MOVE OVER DC POLITICIANS, DAN SNYDER IS DC'S TOP CREEP

By: Kris Mead

"King" Daniel Marc Snyder

Despite its ability to subvert the NFL Draft to an online forum, revert team meetings to Zoom meetings, limit the number of fans, if any, into stadiums and prevent NFL preseason games from being played, the Coronavirus lacked the power to prevent Daniel Snyder, the Washington Football Team’s owner, from notching one more hole in his pervert belt.

Snyder has come under scrutiny after the Washington Post reported that Snyder requested  a private video be produced for him  containing the “good bits” of the Washington Football Team’s 2008 cheerleader video, chronicling their swim suit calendar photo shoot. The “good bits” were moments when cheerleaders’ nipples were inadvertently exposed “as the women shifted positions or adjusted props.” It should go without saying that none of the cheerleaders gave their consent nor did any of the cheerleaders know that a “good bits” video was being made for Snyder and his upper crust henchmen to drool over. It’s not too farfetched to imagine that Snyder would hit “pause” the moment a cheerleader’s sand covered breast slipped out from under the beads covering her nipple, while a grin creeped over his smudgy, pompous face, as he slowly exhaled, eased back in his leather office chair and placed his feet up on his oak desk, knowing that he, Daniel Snyder, was king. How could anyone stop him?

Past history has shown that unless Daniel Snyder is found guilty or admits to any crime, the NFL will refuse to do anything. Only twice in recent history has the NFL come down on an owner. The last time was in 2014 when Colts’ owner, Jim Irsay, pleaded guilty to driving impaired and received a “six game” suspension and $500,000 fine. In 1999 49ers owner, Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., was suspended from the team for a year and fined after pleading guilty for failing to report a felony.

Daniel Snyder’s likelihood of pleading or being found guilty of a crime of voyeurism is extremely low. This is because the crime is typically hard to prove and very few statistics exist to help rectify the rate of prosecutions, which lends to the idea that voyeurism is hardly prosecuted.  

Former Washington Football Club Employees 
Who Have Alleged Sexual Harassment During 
Their Employment Under Daniel Snyder and His
Team

In turn, Roger Goodell, and the other thirty-one owners have decided that the best course of action is to wait for the results of an internal investigation, initiated and funded by the Washington Football Team. It’s an understatement to say that Roger Goodell has again done too little against one of the “lords” of his realm. Roger Goodell, without any consent from the other owners, can suspend Daniel Snyder and/or fine Snyder up to $500,000. It would seem only right to temporarily suspend Daniel Snyder as an independent internal investigation, hired by the league, not hired by the very actors who are to be investigated, thoroughly produces an accurate report of what actually occurred in the upper echelon of FedExField.

If common sense isn’t enough for Roger Goodell to act prudently, it may be the fact that his league is vastly behind the times. As more police murders are captured on video and more citizens are demanding change, the NFL sits there in an awkward position of supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, yet also being on the side of the suppressor when the league unilaterally black balled Colin Kaepernick out of the NFL. The league now has the opportunity to take a stance against sexual harassment and promote female empowerment by uniting as one against an owner who has repeatedly shown total disregard for women, minorities and proper decency to fellow humans.

The NBA united to dispense of the racist Los Angeles Clippers owner, Donald Sterling. Just recently Dell Roy Hansen, the owner of the Major League Soccer club, Real Salt Lake, has agreed to sell the team after Major League Soccer stated it would begin an investigation (note, it isn’t Hansen or his team conducting their own investigation into themselves) into Hansen’s alleged arrogant statements concerning his team’s postponement of a game, in protest against police brutality.

Why is it so hard for Roger Goodell to do the same?

The NFL will claim that after extensively reviewing the Washington Football Team’s internal investigation there was some behavior found to be unacceptable in the workplace, and that the team has assured the league that it will take steps to remedy these issues. No follow-up will happen, no punishment directed at Snyder – the figure who has reigned over the team’s “unacceptable workplace behavior”- and the NFL won’t have to worry about Snyder for sixty days when another lewd action ekes itself out of Snyder’s castle.

The NFL, its owners, and Goodell preside over the most aggressive sport in America, yet quiver when they are tasked with having to issue discipline against one of their own.  The NFL takes great pride in supporting breast cancer awareness. They should invest that same energy and platform  into an equally just cause - ending sexual harassment.