The Washington Post - USA (2021-10-27)

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D5

ing the widespre ad harassment

and abuse of women within one

franchise of the NFL. If the NFL

discloses the results of the investi-

gation and takes meaningful steps

to address the underlying prob-

lems, that will send the message

that the League does not tolerate

misogyny and abuse. To date, the

League has sent the opposite mes-

sage.”

Jon Gruden resigned as coach

of the Las Vegas Raiders this

month after it was revealed that he

used racist, homophobic and mi-

sogynistic language in emails to

Bruce Allen, Washington’s former

team president, and others over a

span of approximately seven years

while Gruden worked for ESPN.

Gruden’s emails were uncovered

as part of the Washington investi-

gation.

“Now is the time for the NFL to

change course and take action to

denounce past racist, sexist, and

homophobic conduct,” the former

Washington employees wrote.

“The first step in doing so is trans-

parency. The NFL must make pub-

lic the findings of the investig ation

into the WFT. We are calling on

you to demand that the NFL make

the findings public. We are calling

on you to do the right thing.”

[email protected]

[email protected]

organization.”

Goodell said the NFL will “re-

spond to Congress appropriately”

and will be “cooperative.”

Owners participated in their

first in-person meeting Tuesday

since the coronavirus pandemic

began.

“We got a complete narration

and review of how the informa-

tion was gathered [and] how it

was resolved,” Dallas Cowboys

owner Jerry Jones said, before us-

ing the team’s former name. “Dan

and the Redskins are addressing

any issues that were involved and

had begun to address them even

before the findings were totally in.

We looked into how the informa-

tion was obtained, the extent of

the information, how it was pre-

sented and [were] totally satis-

fied.”

New York Jets owner Woody

Johnson said b efore the meeting

that he would not of fer an opinion

on whether evidence from the in-

vestigation should be released.

“I don’t k now,” he said. “That’s

something between the league

and the various people involved in

that. I’m not going to really opine

on that. We’re here for football.”

In their letter to the owners, the

former team employees wrote:

“This investigation into the WFT

was an important step in address-

gotten this report released, now

we need whoever can [help] to

help us, from Congress to different

organizations,” Nunez said. “We

need more people on board to help

push the envelope to have this

report released. As someone who

is included in the report, I k now

my story and I know what needs to

be told. And I know my friends, my

colleagues, my former colleagues

— their stories are more than that.

We need to be heard whatever way

possible.”

The NFL announced in July

that Washington would be fined

$10 million and that Snyder would

cede control of the franchise’s dai-

ly operations to his wife, Tanya,

who had been named the team’s

co-CEO, for an unspecified

amount of time. Tanya Snyder is

representing the team, along with

several other executives, at this

week’s meetings.

“I do think he’s been held ac-

countable,” Goodell said of Daniel

Snyder. “I think the organization

has b een held accountable. I think

we’ve given an unprecedented

fine. Dan Snyder has not been

involved with the organization for

now almost four months. And we

obviously are focused more on

making sure that policies... will

be maintained and that we can

ensure that will happen with this

FROM STAFF REPORTS

The Leonardtown boys’ soccer
team finished its regular season
with a 4-1 win over Huntingtown
on Friday, keeping the Raiders (11-
0-3) the only undefeated local
team. That means they carry a tar-
get on their back that will only grow
bigger when the playoffs begin.
But Coach Rob Hor and his pro-
gram are familiar with the mix of
emotions that comes with success.
Leonardtown has a proud soccer
history, having also gone undefeat-
ed in 2019 en route to an appear-
ance in the Maryland 4A title game.
“We have a way of doing things
at Leonardtown that is passed
from our alumni down to our pro-
gram,” Hor said. “The way has been
paved for our team to be successful.
We constantly remind them of the
sacrifices and the hard work that
has been done here over the last
few years and decades even.”

Success such as that can get in

your head, in good ways and bad.

“There is pressure, along with

some momentum,” Hor said. “Ev-

eryone wants to knock you off....

So we need to come out with a

confidence rather than an arro-

gance.”

After the coronavirus pandemic

scuttled the 2020 season, the pro-

gram returned five players from

that 2019 squad, and they have

emerged as the leaders of this

grou p. The team has faced injury

issues but has overcome them by

leaning on a balanced approach.

This team’s best soccer, Hor said, is

played when everybody is sharing

the ball.

— Michael Errigo

Girls’ soccer

In April, Marrio tts Ridge’s play-

ers gathered in the Marriottsville

school’s wrestling room for a so-

cially distant end-of-season meet-

ing. The previous week, the Mus-

tangs had fallen in the semifinals of

Howard County’s postseason tour-

nament, conducted solely for the

condensed spring season. But with

most of Marriotts Ridge’s players

returning for the fall campaign in

four months, this meeting doubled

as a preseason gathering.

During the meeting, the team’s

captains set goals to win the county

title in the fall and claim the

school’s first Maryland 3A crown.

Since then, Marriotts Ridge (13-

0-1) has outscored its opponents

40-2. The Mustangs completed

their first objective last week,

clinching the county crown with a

3-0 win over Centennial in their

regular season finale. Marriotts

Ridge received a b ye to begin the

state playoffs this week.

“A lot of it was their own drive to

compete in games they felt they

should’ve won,” Marriotts Ridge

Coach Darius Qualls said.

The Mustangs have collected a

handful of county titles, but their

deepest postseason run came in

2013, when they made the state

semifinals.

“They want to win their first

state championship,” said Qualls,

whose squad will carry a seven-

game shutout streak into the play-

offs. “That’s their mission.”

— K yle Melnick

Volleyball

In 2020, Prince George’s County

canceled its season because of the

coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, the

county faces another issue in stag-

ing games: Officials aren’t showing

up.

About halfway through the sea-

son, the county overhauled its

schedule to accommodate officials

who generally work other matches

on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but

even that hasn’t fixed the problem.

Almost every school in Prince

George’s County had more than a

dozen matches scheduled to start

the season, yet some of those teams

have yet to play more than three as

the season approaches its final

weeks.

“You get your girls excited to

play a match, and then at the 11th

hour you have to tell them, ‘Sorry,

you’re not playing,’ ” Oxon Hill

Coach Andria Bynum said. “Our

frustration and our patience levels

are wearing thin.”

High school volleyball matches

are supposed to have two of ficials,

yet the vast majority of matches in

the county have gone on with just

one.

— S pencer Nusbaum

Field hockey

St. John’s lost to Good Counsel in

the Washington Catholic Athletic

Conference final two years in a row,

both times as the favorite, both

times by one goal and both times in

overtime. The losses, as they often

do, taught Coach Corey Kelly an

important lesson.

In this case, it was the advantage

of being an underdog.

“I think it’s easier to fight back

than it is to have people just com-

ing at you,” Kelly said.

After last year, when the WCAC

championship wasn’t held because

of the pandemic, this is the first

chance the Cadets (7-0) will have to

put those lessons from 2018 and

2019 into practice. They won’t be

the underdog — their perfect rec-

ord and position atop the confer-

ence make them the team to beat —

but Kelly hopes she and her team

can find the ability to fight back if

they trail in a big match.

“If you treat them like the under-

dog and make them play with an

underdog mentality even if they

aren’t, then that’s very powerful,”

Kelly said.

— V arun Shankar

HIGH SCHOOL NOTES

Unbeaten Raiders become the hunted as they pursue a boys’ s occer state title

term trauma is going to be there

for people. So now is the time to do

it, to say no and to be aware and to

be be tter — better humans, better

people, better bosses, better em-

ployees.”

The NFL Players Association

also has called for information

from the investig ation to be re-

leased. Last week, two members of

Congress wrote to Goodell, asking

the league to provide the findings

of the investigation and details of

its handling of the probe.

“It’s a step forward, honestly,

because as much as I wish it was

just us, that our pleas would have

SETH WENIG/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Melanie Coburn delivered a

letter to NFL owners Tuesday.

one of the former employees, Mel-

anie Coburn, as she stood in the

lobby after delivering copies of the

letter to the hotel’s front desk. “I

think it’s very important that the

other owners know what is going

on in the Washington football

franchise. And I’m honored to be

here to represent all of those who

have worked in this culture and

survived.”

The le tter, signed by 12 former

team employees, was addressed to

five owners on the NFL’s social

justice working group and copied

to all other owners.

“Unfortunately this is some-

thing that doesn’t just happen...

at the Washington Football Team,”

the other former employee, Ana

Nunez, said as she stood alongside

Coburn in the hotel lobby. “So that

awareness needs to expand be-

yond the NFL. We have heard sto-

ries from other leagues and teams

where this has happened in the

past. And there needs to be a stan-

dard of repercussions for team

owners and staff and everyone

that this is not okay.... The long-

i nvestigation that you’re going
through,” Goodell said. “But it af-
fects future investigations and the
credibility of th at. So when you
make a promise to protect the
anonymity to make sure that we
get the right information, you
need to stand by that. And so we’re
very conscious of making sure that
we’re protecting those that came
forward. They were incredibly
brave, incredibly open, and we
respect the pain that they prob-
ably went through all over again to
come forward.”
Goodell’s first substantive pub-
lic comments on the investigation,
which was completed in July,
came after two former employees
of the team hand-delivered a letter
to owners earlier Tuesday at the
hotel at which they were meeting,
urging the league to release infor-
mation from the investigation.
“I jus t really felt compelled to be
here in person to hand-deliver
these letters to make my voice and
make all of our stories heard,” said

WASHINGTON FROM D1

Former WFT employees

urge NFL to release report

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