Dan Snyder of Washington is currently facing possibly the most scrutiny of his 21 years as team owner, which says something considering he was already among the most vilified team owners in the sport.
The scrutiny comes through a Washington Post report released on Thursday detailing a culture of sexual misconduct within the organization, with 15 different employees and two reporters alleging that they were sexually harassed by high-ranking team employees. Since then, Snyder has sent a memo to employees apologizing for the situation, but calls for him to sell the team or for the NFL to force him to sell the team remain.
This is all a family story for Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who ended up donating $ 10 million as a result of a Sports Illustrated story detailing a similar culture of sexual misconduct on his own team in 2018.
Mark Cuban’s advice to Dan Snyder
With that experience, Cuban offered some unsolicited advice to Snyder through his SiriusXM radio show on Saturday.
From Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News:
“If you know Dan Snyder, if you are involved with the Redskins, if you connect with them, tell Dan and tell his top management that you must recognize what you did well and what you did wrong,” Cuban said. “You have to accept the mistakes you made. That is painful. I make many mistakes. And that’s the only way this is going to be resolved. “
Cuban reportedly recalled crying in 2018 after a journalist informed him that several women had reported that they had been sexually harassed while working for his team for years. He saw many of his own mistakes in this week’s Washington Post story, saying his team “went through exactly the same thing” in 2018.
Obviously, Cuban didn’t have to sell his team as a result of history, and it seems likely that Snyder will also avoid that fate.
Dan Snyder has a lot of work to do. (Photo by Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Snyder was not directly involved in the story, but it was obvious that his own actions, or the lack of them, had helped create such a culture. One of the many shocking revelations in WaPo’s history was that the team employed a single full-time human resources employee in a $ 1 billion business with more than 220 full-time employees. That fact, combined with Snyder’s well-known penchant for favoring an inner circle, supposedly fostered a kids’ club vibe with little fear of repercussions.
It will require a review by the Washington organization to avoid repeating those mistakes, just as the NBA recommended that Cubans hire more women, implement regular anonymous surveys and streamline processes around allegations of sexual harassment.
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