A few days ago, the National Football League said they found no other current team or league personnel to have sent emails containing racist, anti-gay or misogynistic language similar to messages written by Jon Gruden that led to his resignation as Las Vegas Raiders coach. The NFL “did not identify other areas and other individuals it has to contact at club leadership or league leadership levels.”
One former Washington employee says the team has a much bigger problem.
Melanie Coburn has taken on the role as a voice for the voiceless. She worked as a member of the Washington Football Team cheerleading squad for 14 years where she witnessed years of workplace misconduct which was eventually investigated by the NFL and later reopened, leading to the Gruden email leak.
She believes the biggest issue has yet to be addressed.
“We know that that is a very, very small fraction of the 650,000 emails that we know they have access to,” she told Fox News of the leaked emails initially reported by The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. “These emails were also a result of the investigation that we participated in — over 150 of us former employees of the Washington Football Team. Countless hours, lots of trauma relived, lots of emotions and anxiety and yet the only person to take fall for these terrible wrongdoings was a coach of another team.”
The NFL has denied releasing the emails to any media. Coburn says it was Snyder.
“I believe Dan Snyder leaked these emails,” Coburn told Fox News. “I believe he’s trying to put all the blame on Bruce Allen. He sent over a dozen private investigators to my colleagues’ homes across the country … to show up on cheerleaders’ doorstops and ask them what their relationship with Bruce Allen was.”
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Fox News received a statement from a firm representing Snyder that said any claim that he, or anyone within the organization, was behind the media leaks was “categorically false.”
Coburn said she felt confident that Snyder was behind the leaks. “I feel like he’s trying to pin everything on Bruce, right, and place all the blame for all of the bad culture on him, which just isn’t true.”
“Any suggestion by Ms. Coburn that anyone associated with the Washington Football Team was behind any leaks concerning Jon Gruden is categorically false and part of a pattern of misinformation being spread by Ms. Coburn,” the attorney, Jordan Siev, told Fox News.
“[This leak] brings to light that the women of the Washington Football Team were exposed in these emails and we don’t know the extent of it,” Coburn said.
Last week, the New York Times reported emails between Gruden, Allen, and other men had circulated topless photos of women, “including one photo of two Washington team cheerleaders.”
“It’s terrifying,” Coburn said of the latest revelation. “Like I said, these women cheered a decade ago. They are now mothers. They have careers. They own businesses. They’re teachers. Think about how it impacts them. They’re reliving this trauma that they went through the first time with the videos when the videos came out and now they’re just going through all these emotions again.”
“Nobody realizes that these women can’t speak up now,” she added.” They’ve signed these (Non-disclosure agreements) and if I don’t do it I don’t know who else is going to do it.”
Earlier this year, Coburn started a petition calling for the league to release a report on its initial findings.
