NFL fines Snyder $60 million for sexual harassment and withholding earnings
Daniel Snyder was fined $60 million, by far the largest fine ever imposed on an NFL team owner, after he was found to have assaulted a woman who was both a former cheerleader and a marketing executive for the Washington Commanders.
A league-sponsored investigation released Thursday found credible claims from Tiffani Johnston, the former team aide, who said Snyder placed his hand on her thigh without her consent during a work dinner in 2005 or 2006, and that he later tried to push her into the backseat of his car after the event. According to the report, her account was supported by evidence and contemporaneous witnesses.
The findings were reported by Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor and chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who spent 17 months investigating allegations of widespread sexual harassment against team executives, including Snyder, as well as claims of financial impropriety.
The NFL released White’s report immediately after the 31 other clubs unanimously approved the sale of the Commanders to an investment group led by Josh Harris for $6.05 billion, a record for an American professional sports team.
“The conduct underpinned by Ms. White’s findings has no place in the NFL,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “We strive for workplaces that are safe, respectful and professional. What Ms. Johnston experienced is inappropriate and against NFL values.”
White’s report also substantiated the claims of a former Washington ticket manager, Jason Friedman, who said the team had deliberately foreclosed and withheld revenues intended to be distributed among the league’s 32 teams. According to the report, approximately $11 million in shareable earnings were confirmed to have been wrongly withheld.
The investigators wrote that they could not conclude or exclude that Snyder had directed or participated in this revenue foreclosure, but that “he was at least aware of certain efforts to minimize revenue sharing.”
Johnston and Friedman made these allegations in early 2022 as part of a congressional investigation into the league’s refusal to release the details of its first investigation into harassment complaints at the team in 2021.
“Dan Snyder has been forced to sell the team he said he would never sell, pay a huge fine to the NFL, and a comprehensive public record now exists of his personal misconduct and the misconduct that occurred under his leadership,” Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, the attorneys representing more than 40 former Commanders employees who spoke out about workplace misconduct, including Johnston and Friedman, said in a statement.
Asked to clarify how the league determined the amount of Snyder’s fine, Goodell replied: “It was a resolution of all outstanding cases, including Mary Jo White’s findings. It was something that the finance committee considered, unanimously recommended and the members unanimously accepted.”
While the investigators spoke to 44 witnesses, including former employees released by the team from non-disclosure agreements, and reviewed tens of thousands of documents made available by the commanders, Snyder was also chastised for not fully cooperating with their investigation.
He refused to speak to White for nearly a year, and when he finally did, he met for just an hour to deny the sexual harassment allegations. He also said he had “little knowledge or recollection of substantive information relevant to the financial issues”.
White said the team had not produced any documents for months to explain why it moved millions of dollars from NFL revenue sharing accounts to other accounts.
The commanders deliberately violated the league’s revenue-sharing rules through practices that included improperly classifying revenue from NFL games as coming from other special events, and reporting improperly reduced ticket prices to the league, the report said.