From Dream Job to Nightmare

July 16, 2020 4:21 PM

But most of all, Applegate said, they cried about the realization their dream job of working in the NFL came with what they characterized as relentless sexual harassment and verbal abuse that was ignored — and in some cases, condoned — by top team executives.

The Washington Post reports that 15 women experienced widespread sexual harassment while working for the soon-to-be-renamed washington football team.

Team owner Daniel Snyder declined several requests for an interview. Over the past week, as The Post presented detailed allegations and findings to the club, three team employees accused of improper behavior abruptly departed, including Larry Michael, the club’s longtime radio voice, and Alex Santos, the team’s director of pro personnel.

non-paywall link to story.

posted by jenkinsEar (12 comments total)

My first impulse was to post a snide comment about "Who could ever have predicted?" but I think / I hope I'm through with letting reflexive cynicism smother my outrage. So yes, on the one hand I don't think many will be terribly surprised that the behind-the-scenes world of professional sports is like this but on the other hand it is f*cking 2020 and this is a multi-billion dollar business and why do we still put up with this crap or act as if it's remotely OK?

Also:

The other 14 women spoke on the condition of anonymity citing a fear of litigation, as some signed nondisclosure agreements with the team that threaten legal retribution if they speak negatively about the club.

This shit has to stop. Courts need to come down hard on organizations that are using nondisclosure agreements to conceal patterns of misbehavior and be willing to void such agreements when they can be shown to be contrary to the public good.

(and finally: thank you for the non-paywall link.)
posted by Nerd of the North at 4:33 PM on July 16, 2020 [40 favorites]

From an also-horrific previously a couple of years ago: "The women describe having to pose in the nude while being ogled by the team’s male sponsors during what was supposed to be a private photo shoot, only to find out later they had also been selected by these same male sponsors to be their escorts at a night club that evening."
posted by clawsoon at 4:44 PM on July 16, 2020 [2 favorites]

Remember when we called people glassholes for wearing a video recorder? [wistful sigh]

Encounter Video has a persuasive power that can even make Nancy Grace an ally (in the loosest possible way). No, it should not be neccessary, but it turns heads and minds en masse much, much faster.

In a world where everyone is a glasshole, no one is.
posted by CynicalKnight at 4:46 PM on July 16, 2020

I was wondering why Daniel Snyder suddenly caved about the name, and I now have very little doubt that a desire to soften the impact of this story was a major motivation.

But it isn't going to work, Dan. You're done.
posted by jamjam at 4:56 PM on July 16, 2020 [15 favorites]

Maybe we should find and talk about situations where this kind of thing *doesn't* happen. If we only hear about horrible stuff, it seems normalized.
posted by amtho at 7:33 PM on July 16, 2020

It “seems normalized” because way too many people either

(A) Consider it normal, a little payroll tax women should expect to pay for daring to show up in any given industry,

Or

(B) Don’t want to hear about how prevalent it is because then they’d have to reckon with the unpleasant fact that Mindset A is still very much in charge
posted by armeowda at 11:35 PM on July 16, 2020 [8 favorites]

That's the problem, we accept a lot of this as a "who could have ever predicted...?" (snrk) reply to every instance of treating more vulnerable people coming too close to power and prestige as a given.

The fact that this is completely UNsurprising makes it WORSE.
posted by showbiz_liz at 4:09 AM on July 17, 2020

It is the corruption of the rule of law, all of this kind of stuff while technically illegal seems to be common and prevalent. That is how you kill a society, when everyone is pretending and no one is actually following the law.
posted by Meatbomb at 5:32 AM on July 17, 2020

Americans need to push hard, because when you give in to helplessness and hopelessness and resignation you get what happened in the USSR. Hold people and institutions accountable.
posted by Meatbomb at 5:33 AM on July 17, 2020

I read the whole piece. I was struck by how much ground “lol” seems to cover in the screenshot text messages.
posted by amanda at 6:56 AM on July 17, 2020

I guess that I find it unsurprising because it increasingly seems to me that football is morally rotten at its core, and that toxic masculinity is a pretty big component of that moral rot. Football is, on some level, *about* toxic masculinity. It's a bonding ritual primarily for men: football allows men to bond by participating in controlled violence, by watching other men enact violence on each other, and by objectifying women. I am very aware that many women enjoy watching football: I'm a woman who grew up watching football, and in fact I was raised to be a fan of that particular football team. But I never believed that football was about or for me. Football was about masculinity, and I'm not sure that it's a version of masculinity that can be redeemed.

Having said that, Snyder needs to go, I'm glad they finally changed the fucking name, and I feel so bad for those women and hope they get every bit of justice they are owed.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:09 AM on July 17, 2020 [8 favorites]

It needs sorting fast it is 2020!!
posted by NickyP at 11:43 AM on July 17, 2020