NFL to oversee inquiry

The NFL moved quickly Wednesday to take over an investigation into alleged sexual harassment by Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder, saying the league, not the team, will hire an investigator to lead the probe. The Commanders announced Wednesday morning that the team had hired an outside investigator to look into former team employee Tiffani Johnston’s claims that Snyder groped her thigh at a team dinner more than a decade ago and and pushed her toward his limousine with his hand on her lower back. Hours later, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league, not the team, would oversee the probe, and Commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated that point during his news conference at the Super Bowl. The developments follow a familiar pattern. When former employees of Washington’s NFL team first complained in 2020 about rampant sexual harassment by team executives, the team hired attorney Beth Wilkinson’s firm to investigate. The league took over that probe and Wilkinson reported her findings to Goodell. The NFL fined Snyder $10 million and he temporarily ceded day-to-day operations of the franchise to his wife, Tanya. Wilkinson’s findings have not been released publicly, and leaders of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform have pressed the league to turn over details of that probe. Johnston worked for the team, then known as the

Redskins, in the 2000s as a cheerleader and marketing manager. The team dropped its name, which had long been criticized as offensive to Native Americans, in 2020 amid protests of systemic racism. It was known as the Washington Football Team the past two seasons. Snyder announced the new team name last week.

Snyder