the Washington commanders last week. The reporting was that
the US House oversight and reform committee was looking
into Financial improprieties. In addition, to the chronic
workplace issues that had spawned the investigation and
the first place,
among the reports, an idea that a former employee, Jason
Freedman had spoken to the committee, 24-year employee in
the ticketing area given information.
Pointedly allegedly about two sets of books about the team
finding a way to take money. That otherwise would go to
the pool that is shared by all teams as the
visiting ticket revenue
and keeping it for the Washington commanders.
Well,
the Commander's denied it pretty heavily last week. The
committee supplied
something much stronger today with a 20-page letter sent to
the Federal Trade Commission and
copies sent to the Attorneys General of the surrounding
jurisdictions. Is DC, Maryland and Virginia
laying out the evidence that was provided by Jason Freedman
to the committee. And there are two things here. We're going to
try to boil this down because the article can get pretty
confusing.
There's a lot there.
We tried to make it as simple as we could distilling it from
the very fine reporting of the Washington Post. There are two
scams that were alleged by Jason Freedman one. They were
messing around with security deposits
That multiple-year, season ticket holders, had
I made, and it basically forgotten about
they were not doing anything to help remind them of them. And
or creating enough obstacles that people would just say
screw it and look that happens from time to time.
It's always easier to get them to take your money. Then it is
to get them to give you
their money back. There is a major publication a major
national publication that I almost subscribe to the other
night until I saw that it wasn't nearly going to be as
easy
to stop the subscription
as it was to start it. And that's usually the clue
that there's a little scam floating around in this.
They're trying to throw obstacles in your way. So
Washington, commanders, allegedly, we're doing that.
And keeping money that was paid as security deposits, by
multiple Years, season ticket holders, on top of that. They
were doing something that they referred to as Gathering juice.
What they would do
and Friedman apparently has the receipts, it apparently has
emails and documents back this up. Not good
for Daniel Snyder.
You find a way to finagle the numbers so that Revenue that
comes in for tickets sold to Washington commanders home
games. And I know at the time they weren't the Commander's
but they are now they don't get
to sanitize their new name
by saying. Well, we weren't the Commander's then, don't call
us. The Commander's. You were the Commander's. You are
the Commander's commanders get sullied by this mess.
They would take that money
and they would push it toward not NFL events like a Kenny
Chesney concert an army Notre.
A milder Navy Notre Dame game that was played at FedEx field
or hey, maybe even a game. I went to a match. I went to when
I drove all the way over there to see Lionel Messi not play
for Argentina
at FedEx field, when I realized what a complete and total
s. Whole that stadium is it's horrendous.
So anyway, anyway,
those are the two scams
that were being run, allegedly, and now
Congress wants the FTC to investigate the Attorneys
General. General are on notice just days after we saw that
letter from six different Attorneys General telling
the NFL. We are watching you
NFL. We are watching you just like Gaylord focker
and Robert De Niro and meet the parents.
So
this is not good Shireen and it keeps getting worse, you know?
Every new development. It keeps getting worse
for the Washington, commanders, and Daniel Snyder. And you just
have to wonder when
It's going to implode because it feels like it's moving in
that direction. Yeah,
it really does Mike and it becomes more dampening and more
dampening with everyday. Frankly. With every week that
we're hearing these things come out.
I have two questions.
Why wouldn't Daniel Snyder? And the Washington commanders?
Make Jason Freedman signing. Indeed a NDA.
And pay him whatever it took million dollars, whatever it's
walk away.
Don't ever talk about this
because
he obviously has the papers. He obviously has the proof for it.
Seems like that Mike that he has approved. So that's
the first thing. And the second thing, could we see a class
action suit?
I don't know what the statute of limitations are, but could
we see a class action suit from these people who didn't get
their money back?
Well, we could and it would be an argument similar to the one
that Ray Horton is going to make in the aftermath of
the disclosure of the comments from Mike Mularkey. We talked about
that last week as it related to the new edition of Horton and
Steve Wilkes on the Brian Flores lawsuit. I just found
out about it.
I just found out about it. Yeah, so the clock starts running
once it comes to life because they had hidden it from me.
There's no way I could have known that. I was gettin
screwed here. I had no reason to think they were doing this.
Now, from the NFL's perspective.
You're going to have hell to pay unless and let me address
the point you made first. For I get too far past them.
Lisa Banks who represents Jason Freedman referred to some
restriction on the ability of freedmen to speak publicly. So
he may have signed an NDA for just whatever basic Severance
was available. A lot of companies do that
to get your one week of pay for every year of service and
that's a substantial amount of money for Jason Freedman. If he
got one week for 24 years
with the Washington commanders organization. That's a lot of
cash. You sign an NDA. He was able to testify to Congress.
Congress.
There's usually an exception in those.
Nda's that will allow testimony to be given. Maybe he had to
tell them, I need a subpoena in order to be able to say
anything and maybe he got one. We don't know those details,
but
the subpoena would overcome whatever the protection of
the ndaa is. It's keeping him from telling his story publicly, but
he told it privately and it feels like he told it with
a great deal of relish
that he was waiting to tell that story.
Now, on top of that,
the NFL.
You would think the NFL would investigate this aggressively
and after having no comment to The Washington Post earlier
today, Brian McCarthy. The NFL spokesman said this, we
continue to cooperate with the oversight committee and have
provided more than two hundred and ten thousand pages of
documents.
The NFL has engaged former SEC chair, Mary Jo White to review.
The serious matters raised by the committee. Now, that's new.
That white is also reviewing the financial side of it. We
thought white was hired to address the new allegations
that were made in February.
Sorry, when the oversight committee had a Roundtable
session. It wasn't a hearing per se, the witnesses weren't
under oath but there
was a former employee named. Tiffany Johnston, who made
allegations about Daniel Snyder that weren't part of the prior
investigation because she refused to cooperate with
the prior investigation, Mary Jo White was retained for that.
So it sounds like Mary Joe White's. Work is now morphing into
getting to the bottom
of these Financial improprieties.
But the problem with this is
That.
And how do I put this?
I guess I should just put it.
The NFL is not going to want to come off as incompetent or
asleep at the switch, or deliberately negligent, or In
Cahoots in any way with any of these financial improprieties.
And the argument, if I were the owner of another team
or an executive, another team,
I would want to know how in the hell the NFL. Didn't know, this
was happening. What protections do you have in place? Or
frankly? Do you not have in place? Because maybe we'll do
the same thing, but there may be some people right now very
nervous at 3:45 Park Avenue, including Jeff.
Ash the pen pal, a former Washington President,
Bruce Allen member, those emails about how
cozy they were.
I'll tell you what there could be heads rolling. Not just
at
the team headquarters, but at League headquarters when they
get to the bottom of this one Shireen
and Mike, what do you put the odds that Daniel Snyder? Loses
ownership of his team because it was it's been obvious that
the NFL doesn't want that because the other 31 owners
don't want that.
Because they probably have some similar things somewhere in
the closet, buried deep in there and they don't want any of that
to come out. But what odds do you put on Daniel Snyder? Now
losing his team, seeing that he kept money from the other
owners from the
NFL based on these allegations.