Last year, pressure from sponsors prompted Washington Football Team owner Daniel Snyder to abandon his all-caps NEVER refusal to change the team name. Now, sponsors of the league are being asked to pressure the NFL to release the emails obtained through the recent workplace investigation.
A letter from various former employees of the organization to the chief executives of Verizon, Anheuser-Busch, Amazon, Pepsi, Nike, and Proctor & Gamble urges these companies to demand that the NFL reveal the results of an investigation into “one of the biggest scandals of the #MeToo era.”
The letter specifically cites the recent resignation of Raiders coach Jon Gruden, fueled by the release of selected emails from the WFT investigation, as the basis for releasing more of the documents, specifically as it relates to Snyder.
“We do not understand why the NFL seems intent on protecting Dan Snyder and the WFT at all costs,” the letter explains.
“That is why we call on you,” the letter continues. “While the NFL has refused to heed the calls for transparency and accountability from former WFT employees, advocacy groups, lawyers, or the media, it will have to heed such a call from its corporate sponsors. If the League has shown us anything, it is that money, and only money, talks.”
Indeed it does. And if the sponsors become motivated to speak out -- as they should -- that could break the dam at a time when nothing else will.
