There are roughly 650,000 emails included in the NFL’s investigation of workplace misconduct in the Washington Football Team’s front office. At the rate we’re going, we’ll get to know what was in all of them by 2067.
While the NFL is staying mum about much, some of the emails have made their way to the New York Times, which has now published several reports this week. The initial report showcased a series of emails from Jon Gruden using racist, homophobic, and misogynistic language that led to his resignation as head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Then came a series of emails involving ESPN’s Adam Schefter and his overly cozy relationship with WFT executives. Thursday night, the NY Times reported on emails involving Jeff Pash, longtime general counsel of the N.F.L., who was expected to oversee investigations into teams like WFT while also cozying up with executives over there in a conflict of interest.
SCOOP: The close, cozy relationship between the NFL's top lawyer and the president of the troubled Washington Football Team. https://t.co/nTMH2OscuM
— NYT Sports (@NYTSports) October 15, 2021
All the while, the common denominator in all these emails appears to be Bruce Allen, former general manager of the franchise and a guy who clearly needs therapy.
Given what we saw in the Gruden emails, most of what Pash and Allen emailed about is relatively tame, though they do clearly seem to have some specific viewpoints about the league’s Rooney rule and diversity hiring practices.
“Curious — is there a rule against hiring Libertarians, Independents, or even a Republican?” Allen asked.
“No,” Pash replied, “but it can sometimes look that way!”
Perhaps more importantly, the emails reveal the way that Pash seemingly showed favor to Allen and WFT in multiple instances where the league was investigating or fining them. Pash and Allen praise one another often and bond over a Hooters VIP card, of course.
NFL is making simple, cold blooded calculation.
The PR damage of NOT releasing the emails on scale of 1 to 10 is a three.
The PR damage of releasing them is a billion.
Doing the right or wrong thing isn’t part of that calculation.— mike freeman (@mikefreemanNFL) October 14, 2021
If someone at the NFL is leaking these specific emails to the NY Times, they clearly seem to be doing so in an attempt to appease the public. There must be some pretty damning stuff in there if they’re willing to present emails that make Allen look this bad, but it’s unlikely the league will ever let most of them see the light of day. In the meantime, it looks like we can be pretty clear on one thing. Bruce Allen really sucks.
[NY Times]
