For The New York Times | Katherine Rosman and Ken Belson
During a rehearsal for the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show, a top NFL executive got into an argument with a woman, who claimed the man then pushed her. After investigating the incident, the league removed the man from his role as show supervisor and ordered him to take an anger management course. However, he is still a top executive.
Exactly what happened between the woman, who was part of the show’s production, and the man, Mark Quenzel, senior vice president and chief content officer, remains in dispute, with the league insisting Quenzel didn’t push her.
However, the incident was just one of many cited by more than 30 women who spoke to The New York Times about their experiences working in the NFL. They described a deeply entrenched corporate culture that demoralized some employees, led others to quit in frustration, and left many feeling marginalized.
The women said this culture has persisted despite NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s promise — made after the release in 2014 of a video showing running back Ray Rice punching his fiancée — that the league would take a more aggressive stance. strict on domestic violence and sexual assault and would hire more female executives.
In the past week alone, former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores, who is black and Hispanic, sued the league for racial discrimination in its hiring practices, and two former employees of the newly renamed Washington Commanders told Congress that team owner Daniel Snyder had put his hand on a female employee’s thigh at a staff dinner and had organized a labor event where team executives hired prostitutes.
The league said Flores’ lawsuit was “baseless” and that it was investigating the harassment allegations against Snyder, calling them “lies.”
Some of the women interviewed by the Times spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they were bound by confidentiality agreements or feared their careers would be sabotaged if they made public statements.
The NFL employs about 1,100 people, 37 percent of them women and 30 percent people of color, according to league spokesman Brian McCarthy. Like other corporations, the league has increased its efforts to diversify its hiring. It has also implemented measures designed to show support for workforce diversity.
However, the NFL has gone back on promises to be more transparent.
“We all love football, but when you work there every day you realize it’s not a place you’re proud of,” said Ramona Washington, a former NFL Network production coordinator who is African-American. In 2018, after four years, she said, she resigned in anger after her report on prejudice among managers went nowhere.
The NFL’s efforts to overhaul its culture began when it tried to rebound from a scandal that tarnished its reputation.
Theresa Locklear, the league’s director of business intelligence and optimization, was unable to view the video of Rice punching his fiancée the day it was made public in September 2014.
Locklear thinks Goodell felt the gravity of the situation when he met with about 50 women who worked at NFL headquarters. According to Locklear, Goodell reiterated his commitment to addressing domestic violence but didn’t offer many specific measures because, he said, the league was still working on possible solutions.
“I remember walking out of there thinking nothing had changed,” Locklear said. “There was no lesson.”
Following Rice’s video, the NFL accelerated development of a domestic violence and sexual assault training program for players, coaches and staff.
The league launched the program in late 2014. However, the sessions got off to an awkward start when Dwight Hollier, a former professional linebacker who worked in the player liaison department, introduced himself saying, “I used to punch people for a living.”
Through McCarthy, Hollier said his intention had been to try to contrast his old role as a linebacker with his new career as a licensed professional counselor. But Locklear and other women present at the sessions felt the comment had been insensitive, considering the context.
For Locklear, the seminar “was the beginning of the end for me,” he said. “It didn’t feel like they were protecting us. It felt like the league was covering their backs.”
Prompted by the Rice crisis and an annual survey of sports leagues that criticized the NFL for a lack of gender diversity on its staff, the league accelerated the hiring and promotion of women and people of color.
As a result, the number of women at the rank of vice president or higher increased from 21 in 2014 to 31 in 2015, while the number of people of color at that level grew from 14 to 21 during the same period.
Dasha Smith, executive vice president, said 56 percent of people hired in 2021 at league offices were women and 44 percent were people of color. She added that the league scrutinizes promotions to avoid bias and monitors equal pay.
“Of course, we can always do better and make people feel comfortable expressing their concerns,” Smith said.
But the women interviewed by the Times, more than a third of whom are women of color, said that raising their concerns with supervisors or human resources often resulted in the women being convinced to resign. One Black woman said that after telling Human Resources that she felt her supervisor was biased, she was offered a severance package.
Renie Anderson, the league’s chief revenue officer, who has worked in the NFL since 2006, said the influence of women leaders has grown tremendously during her time there. And while the sports industry has generally been dominated by men, Anderson said, “I don’t think I’ve ever been held back here in the NFL because I’m a woman.”
Despite the infighting, league executives looked for ways to promote the NFL as a women-friendly league. They hosted the first NFL Women’s Summit just days before the Super Bowl in 2016.
In November 2018, a video was made public showing Kansas City running back Kareem Hunt pushing a woman and then kicking her when she was on the ground. The woman who was assaulted did not press charges.
Alissa Leeds, an analyst for Digital Media Reports, was on the job the day TMZ broke the story. “We were in shock watching the video,” she said.
Leeds expected league authorities to quickly address the video with employees, but hours passed and nothing happened. Leeds, who was exposed to domestic violence as a child, wrote an email in which she asked one of her superiors if the league planned to help employees affected by the display of violence.
The next morning, Leeds received a call from Kim McFadden, vice president of human resources, who had read her email. According to Leeds, McFadden told him Hunt was “just a guy doing stupid shit.” His actions, McFadden added, “weren’t as bad as Ray Rice’s.”
Through McCarthy, McFadden denied making those statements.
Leeds left the league in August 2019.
“It wasn’t my moral compass,” he said.
Hunt was suspended for eight games in March 2019, a month after signing with the Cleveland Browns.
In the spring of 2019, the NFL hosted a panel for the league’s internal Women’s Interactive Network, drawing further criticism due to the people who participated and what they said.
The panel was led by Jane Skinner Goodell, the commissioner’s wife and former Fox News anchor, and included Charlotte Jones, executive vice president of the Dallas Cowboys and daughter of team owner Jerry Jones.
Skinner Goodell asked the women on her panel to offer advice to female NFL employees trying to navigate the cultural shifts brought about by the #MeToo movement. Jones began by saying that the men were being unfairly sullied.
According to a video obtained by the Times, Jones said there were “incredible gentlemen” in the Cowboys organization who were “afraid to be alone in a meeting with another woman and that hurts us.”
“I actually feel a lot of compassion for men right now,” Jones said.
Some women noted the dissonance that relatives of two of the most powerful men in the league advised them on job advancement.
McCarthy said the league had received “very positive feedback” about the event.
The following year, the incident occurred in which Quenzel, the senior vice president, got into an argument with a woman who was helping to organize the Super Bowl halftime show in Miami Gardens, Florida.
The woman later contacted the league and said Quenzel pushed her, according to a former NFL employee with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from the league.
The NFL pulled video footage captured by the security cameras, according to the person. He also said that after reviewing them, the league removed Quenzel from supervision of the Super Bowl halftime show and ordered him to attend the anger management course.
“It is absolutely untrue that Quenzel pushed the woman,” McCarthy said on behalf of Quenzel and the league. The spokesperson declined to discuss the incident further, did not make Quenzel available, or answered questions about Quenzel’s change in responsibilities or the anger management course.
The league has refrained from sharing the findings of other investigations into the treatment of women in the workplace. Following the publication in 2020 of reports of sexual harassment of women in the Washington franchise, the league assumed oversight of an investigation being conducted by outside counsel.
A congressional committee revealed last week that the NFL had reached an agreement with the franchise that prohibited the release of confidential information obtained from the team as part of the investigation, without the team’s consent.
For Leeds, the lack of transparency was another reminder of the inconsistencies between the NFL’s public statements and inequities in the league. “Everything is justified in the name of football,” he said. Alissa Leeds, a digital media reporting analyst who left the NFL in 2019, is outraged by the internal response to high-profile domestic violence allegations against her players. (Monique Jaques / The New York Times) Alissa Leeds, a digital media reporting analyst who left the NFL in 2019, is outraged by the internal response to high-profile domestic violence allegations against her players. (Monique Jacques/The New York Times)
