Las Vegas Raiders team owner Mark Davis voiced his displeasure with the way the NFL dealt with former head coach Jon Gruden’s racist, homophobic and misogynistic emails, calling it a “timing issue.”
And he became the first team owner to say the league should release a written report on the investigation into the Washington Football Team‘s workplace misconduct that led to the Gruden email leaks.
The league’s team owners are meeting in-person for the first time in 22 months and have largely avoided the reporters area outside of the closed meeting room.
Davis: NFL should ‘probably’ release WFT findings
Earlier Wednesday, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told reporters the owners were “very satisfied with the NFL holding Dan Snyder accountable.” Hours later, Davis was asked if the league should release a written report on the investigation, a stance no owner had supported yet.
“Probably. Yeah, I think that there should be, yeah,” he said, via video by Nicki Jhabvala at the Washington Post. “Especially with some of the things that were, I guess, charged. I believe so. I think that people deserve [it], especially the people that were ‘victims.'”
The investigation into the WFT team’s workplace culture was triggered by multiple Washington Post reports that detailed decades of discrimination, sexual harassment and abuse mostly directed at female employees and cheerleaders.
It concluded over the summer with team owner Dan Snyder forced to pay a fine and hand day-to-day operations to his wife, Tanya, for an undetermined amount of time. No further details have been made available.
Calls for transparency in WFT investigation
Media, fans and members of Congress have been calling on the league to be transparent. On Tuesday, several former team employees who have accused the team of harassment, discrimination and abuse delivered a letter asking owners to push for the release of the investigation’s findings.
The NFL said it decided to receive an oral report instead of a written one because the matter was of a sensitive nature. Commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated the stance on Tuesday that Snyder “has been held accountable” and said the league would not produce an actual report out of concern for the anonymity of those who came forward.
Lisa Banks, who represents 40 former WFT employees, said those comments were false and that her clients asked for “transparency and accountability.”
Davis on Gruden’s emails, timing of release
Davis may have a different stance than any other team owner because his club has already been subjected to controversy as part of the investigation. The emails acquired by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times were found as part of the WFT investigation and leaked.
Davis claimed on Wednesday that the league knew about the emails for months — likely dating back to the closure of the investigation this past summer — but failed to tell the Raiders about them. They are part of the 650,000 emails collected by the league.
“It’s a timing issue,” Davis told reporters, via NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. He said the league may have known about the specific emails for months and could have told the franchise, making it easier to handle.
Asked if the franchise was treated unfairly, Davis replied: “We’re Raiders. We’re used to this.”
Davis has hinted at this previously, following up his initial no comment about the resignation with, “Ask the NFL. They have all the answers.” The Raiders are 2-0 since the resignation and lead the AFC West. Davis said he’s spoken to Gruden, who is “really hurt,” and the sides have reached an undisclosed settlement.
Gruden signed a 10-year, $100 million contract with the Raiders in 2018 after working as an ESPN analyst for nearly a decade. The emails were from his time working at ESPN. He resigned the night the emails were reported by the New York Times and after the Raiders started the season 3-2.
