CNN
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Washington Commanders proprietor Daniel Snyder has denied allegations that he employed non-public investigators to look into his NFL counterparts, in addition to league commissioner Roger Goodell.
Final week, ESPN, citing a number of unnamed house owners and league and staff sources, reported that the Commanders proprietor “instructed his legislation corporations to rent non-public investigators to look into different house owners – and Goodell.”
In a letter despatched to all different NFL house owners, Snyder said: “That’s patently false and supposed to erode the belief and goodwill between house owners that I take fairly critically. I’ve by no means employed any non-public investigator to look into any proprietor or the Commissioner. I’ve by no means instructed or licensed my attorneys to rent any non-public investigator on my behalf for any such function. And I by no means would.
“Whereas all of us are fierce opponents on the sphere, we’re part of this group as a result of we love soccer, our groups and our followers. Having the privilege to personal a franchise in America’s sport is one thing I do know none of us take as a right. Falsehoods and lies being unfold about any of our organizations hurts our League, our gamers and our followers, and we merely can not allow them to go unchallenged.”
Final yr, after an inner investigation by legal professional Beth Wilkinson, the NFL fined the staff $10 million and Snyder handed management over the franchise’s each day operations to his spouse, Tanya Snyder. The NFL, nonetheless, declined to publicly launch its findings, sparking a Home Oversight Committee assessment in October.
Regardless of the change, ESPN alleges present and former staff executives say Snyder “remains to be way more concerned working the membership than most notice,” including that he lobbied to accumulate quarterback Carson Wentz from the Colts whereas the sources questioned if staff president Jason Wright, the primary Black man in NFL historical past to carry that title, “has true authority to repair the staff.”
Snyder denied the ESPN report’s allegations, saying within the letter: “It’s significantly shameful for ESPN to decrease the very actual accomplishments of our President Jason Wright, who ESPN alleges was positioned on the Commanders by the League and has no energy to make actual change. I do know you already know this to be false. Sadly, ESPN ignored our efforts to appropriate the various falsehoods of their article earlier than its publication.”
Following the Commanders’ 12-7 victory over the Chicago Bears on Thursday night time, Washington head coach Ron Rivera additionally denied the stories, saying that he was behind the choice to recruit Wentz.
“All people retains desirous to say I didn’t need something to do with Carson, properly, bullsh*t,” mentioned Rivera.
“I’m the f**king man that pulled out the sheets of paper, seemed on the analytics, watched the tape … once we had been at Indianapolis, OK? And that’s what pisses me off, ‘trigger the younger man doesn’t need to have that on a regular basis.”
An ESPN spokesman informed CNN in an announcement the corporate is standing by its reporting.
The NFL employed former Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) Chairwoman Mary Jo White earlier this yr to research office misconduct towards Snyder.
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