Upon the completion of Mary Joe White’s investigation into former Panthers owner Jerry Richardson’s workplace misconduct toward women and minorities, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell referred to her “careful and thorough examination of these issues.”
But Friday, the publication whose investigation triggered the sale of the team portrayed an investigation process that was far from thorough.
The look at NFL investigations by Jon Wertheim and Viv Bernstein of Sports Illustrated paints a picture of a league that appears more interested in a quick result than a complete vetting.
According to SI, not only did Richardson not make himself available to White, nor did the league promise to protect any of the recipients of settlements from Richardson, all of whom signed non-disclosure agreements.
While the team said they provided contact information for every employee to White, and “made clear that there would be no retaliation for participating in the investigation,” it appears few took them up on the offer.
“The burden was on [women] to come forward,” said one male employee who has been with the team for more than 10 years. “Shouldn’t an investigator actually investigate?”
One of the former employees who received a settlement said: “I have spoken with other people who were in the same situation I was in, and none spoke to the league or were contacted.”
“The league did not want to stand up and say, ‘We’ll protect you; we just want to get to the truth.’” one former female employee said. “So that makes you think, Are you really trying to get to the bottom of this? Or are you just doing this for show?”
One of Richardson’s accusers described the investigation as “bogus” in an April follow-up by SI.
Since the sale, chief operating officer Tina Becker (Richardson’s long-time right hand) resigned, and legal counsel Richard Thigpen (who authorized and oversaw the NDAs) was fired.
The league fined Richardson $2.75 million at the end of the investigation. Richardson sold his team to David Tepper for $2.275 billion.
