In July, the NFL managed to conclude the Washington Football Team investigation and to conceal the specific results of it. Now, many have begun pushing for transparency in the WFT situation.
The events surrounding the resignation of Raiders coach Jon Gruden, sparked by the selective leaking of emails he sent to former Washington president Bruce Allen, have sparked a growing outcry for more (any) transparency on the question of the WFT investigation. The NFL Players Association has joined in that chorus.
“We have had communications with the league, and the NFLPA plans to request that the NFL release the rest of the emails,” NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith told Mike Jones of USA Today.
An NFL spokesperson told Jones that the league has “no current plans” to release the emails because “confidentiality was an element of the investigation into the Washington Football Team and workplace review.”
That’s fine. But why did the Gruden emails get out? The confidentiality already has failed, via the leaks to both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. It’s a little too late to cite confidentiality, after the NFL already deliberately waived it when handing specific emails to two major media outlets.
