Fifteen former employees of Washington NFL team allege sexual harassment in workplace, per report - USA TODAY

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Tom Schad USA TODAY

Published 6:47 PM EDT Jul 16, 2020

Fifteen former female employees of Washington's NFL team told The Washington Post that they were sexually harassed while working for the club, according to a report published Thursday.

The allegations span from 2006 to 2019, according to the newspaper, and range from inappropriate remarks about female employees' bodies or clothing, to instances of verbal abuse. The Washington Post also details allegations against Santos from two female reporters, Rhiannon Walker of The Athletic and Nora Princiotti, who now works for The Ringer but previously covered Washington's NFL team for The Washington Times.

Several of the allegations outlined by The Post involve men who occupied prominent roles in the organization, three of whom left in the past week.

Alex Santos and Richard Mann II, longtime members of the team's personnel department, were fired over the weekend, according to multiple reports. Larry Michael, the team's long-time radio voice, then abruptly announced his retirement Wednesday after 16 seasons with the club.

The franchise has retained a D.C.-based law firm Wilkinson Walsh to review the matter, according to attorney Beth Wilkinson. She confirmed in an email to USA TODAY Sports earlier Thursday that her firm will be reviewing "the team's culture, policies and allegations of workplace misconduct." (ESPN first reported the firm's hiring.)

"The Washington Redskins football team takes issues of employee conduct seriously," the team said in a statement provided to The Washington Post. "While we do not speak to specific employee situations publicly, when new allegations of conduct are brought forward that are contrary to these policies, we address them promptly."

An NFL spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from USA TODAY Sports on Thursday evening.

"We all tolerated it because we knew if we complained — and they reminded us of this — there were 1,000 people out there who would take our job in a heartbeat," former employee Emily Applegate told The Post.

Thursday's report comes less than one week after pressure from major corporate sponsors led Washington to announce it would be dropping its team name, which many had long viewed as a racial slur. It also follows several months of transition at the top levels of the franchise. 

After firing coach Jay Gruden midway through last season, Washington also ousted head athletic trainer Larry Hess and longtime team president and general manager Bruce Allen, who had long been Snyder's right-hand man.

Former Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera was hired to replace Gruden and Ryan Vermillion, who previously worked with Rivera in Carolina, replaced Hess. The team has yet to hire a new team president.

Team owner Dan Snyder was not directly implicated with any wrongdoing in The Post's report. However many of those interviewed expressed skepticism that he was unaware of inappropriate behavior while also citing the team's lack of a robust human resources department as an issue. Snyder was also alleged to have mocked a male executive who used to be a cheerleader.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad

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