Peter King on the Panthers investigation

[Mr. Scot]

King has an article out now analyzing the effectiveness of NFL investigations in the light of the LeSean McCoy situation (link)

No shock, it contains a lot of discussion of the Jerry Richardson story including comments from both current and former employees who indicate the investigation didn't exactly dig all that deep.

Quote

Early on the team sent an email to every employee containing contact information both for White and a colleague from White's New York law firm, Debevoise & Plimpton. "We do not know who Ms. White contacted," Panthers spokesman Steven Drummond told SI. "We sent her contact information to the entire staff and made clear that there would be no retaliation for participating in the investigation, as per company and League policy. If someone requested to speak to the investigators, we quickly provided that information to them."

Though the staff was informed of the process through emails, multiple employees, who say they were willing to speak with White, were never contacted and were surprised by the passivity of the investigation. "The burden was on [women] to come forward," says one employee, a male, who has been with the team for more than 10 years. "Shouldn't an investigator actually investigate?" One former employee, who reached a settlement with Richardson, says, "I have spoken with other people who were in the same situation I was in, and none spoke to the league or were contacted."

And while the NFL didn't shield Richardson from the consequences of his actions, they didn't exactly go hard after him either.

Quote

According to multiple sources, Richardson declined to make himself available to White. And the NFL, despite the leverage it held in being in position to approve the Panthers sale, would not demand his cooperation. So, with no ability to compel testimony, much less the subpoena power a government agency might wield in a similar probe, White was forced to rely on other avenues and sources to investigate Richardson.

One complication for investigators: The owner had effectively bought the silence of the objects of his offensive workplace conduct, negotiating significant financial settlements in exchange for their signing nondisclosure agreements.

Correspondence obtained by SI reveals that at least two victims of Richardson's harassment were eager to speak with White and share their experiences. But they withdrew their offers, absent a guarantee that speaking would not jeopardize their settlement payments. Says one female former employee, "The league did not want to stand up and say, 'We'll protect you; we just want to get to the truth.' So that makes you think, Are you really trying to get to the bottom of this? Or are you just doing this for show?"

Nothing terribly shocking there.  The NFL doesn't like its dirty laundry getting out.

But here's where the article gets my attention...

Quote

Writing for SI.com in April, one former Panthers employee who had signed an NDA with Richardson described the investigation as "bogus." A current employee says, "Some of the most obvious people in the 200 level [where the Panthers' executive offices are located] were never contacted.... They betrayed a lot of people. And this is a bigger deal than the NFL is making of it."

Oy

Comments from former employees are one thing. This coming from someone who still works there though is another matter.

And if you're thinking that might be an isolated comment, think again...

Quote

Multiple sources told SI that during his 25 years as owner, Richardson had been abetted by enablers, who contributed to making the club a hostile workplace. Asked recently whether any Panthers employees other than Richardson had been disciplined or fired because of their role in the scandal, Drummond responded, "Yes." (He declined to provide further specifics.)

Yet White's report mentions only Richardson and makes no reference to an enabling culture: "The improper conduct was limited to Mr. Richardson. No other employee of the Panthers is alleged to have engaged in such conduct, and the review did not discover evidence of similar conduct by other employees of the club."

And lastly, this note on the statue...

Quote

Tepper also conceded that he was "contractually obligated" to keep the 13-foot statue of Richardson outside Bank of America Stadium. "This was a dagger," says one former Panthers employee. "[Richardson] is in control, even when he's not."

One common thought in discussion of the story has been that perhaps Richardson might only have started getting creepy with females after he got older.  King's sources say he was like that from the beginning, and that no one called him on it. 

Further still, some of those "enablers" apparently still work there.

Richardson is no longer part of the Panthers, and David Tepper has promised a different culture.  Reporters have asked whether that includes investigating who in the Panthers offices might have helped enable Richardson's behavior.  Tepper hasn't made a clear statement on whether that will take place, but did indicate he wants to know about anything affecting the workplace culture.

So if a current employee is saying that there are people in the executive offices who knew and have "betrayed" the victims of Richardson's harassment, the question arises: Will those employees take their concerns to Tepper?  If they do, will he follow through on his promises?

And if so, what happens then?

[Ricky Spanish]

Got a different link to the story? That twitter link doesn't work for me. 

[Khyber53]

Wait, you mean you expected a billionaire boy's club to really peel back the veneer with a no-holds-barred 1970s 60 Minutes style investigation that publicly named names and exposed the entire thing to Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blow ticket-buyers and/or regular viewers?

C'mon. 

You might as well think a political party would encourge a full, unfettered and completely public investigation of their own top office holder.

The super, super wealthy just don't do those things. It's bad for business.

[LinvilleGorge]

It's all in the rearview. The JR era is over.

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, Cracka McNasty said:

Got a different link to the story? That twitter link doesn't work for me. 

My original link got lost in the formatting, but if you look at the top now, it's fixed.

[Mr. Scot]

3 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

It's all in the rearview. The JR era is over.

If there are people still working there who knew about it and did nothing, it's not quite over.  Especially not if there are current employees who are pissed about it, and King's quotes indicate that's the case.

Tepper has made a point of wanting a workplace where stuff like this doesn't happen.  If this gets to him, then what?

[LinvilleGorge]

Just now, Mr. Scot said:

If there are people still working there who knew about it and did nothing, it's not quite over.  Especially not if there are current employees who are pissed about it.

Tepper has made a point of wanting a workplace where stuff like this doesn't happen.  If this gets to him, then what?

None of us are in a position to know. I'm not trying to engage in a witch hunt. 

[Mr. Scot]

4 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

Wait, you mean you expected a billionaire boy's club to really peel back the veneer with a no-holds-barred 1970s 60 Minutes style investigation that publicly named names and exposed the entire thing to Mr. and Mrs. Joe Blow ticket-buyers and/or regular viewers?

C'mon. 

You might as well think a political party would encourge a full, unfettered and completely public investigation of their own top office holder.

The super, super wealthy just don't do those things. It's bad for business.

Granted, and prior to the #metoo movement it was pretty much SOP.

[Mr. Scot]

4 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

None of us are in a position to know. I'm not trying to engage in a witch hunt. 

None of us are in a position to do any kind of "hunt", though King might be.

But again, you've got employees talking about management betrayal and a new owner who says he wants an open atmosphere. That equals the potential for something new to come out.

Will it?  Unknown, but there's been speculation that the executive offices are due for some "adjustment" anyway, so we'll see.

[LinvilleGorge]

2 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

None of us are in a position to do any kind of "hunt", though King might be.

But again, you've got employees talking about management betrayal and a new owner who says he wants an open atmosphere. That equals the potential for something new to come out.

Will it?  Unknown, but there's been speculation that the executive offices are due for some "adjustment" anyway, so we'll see.

There's always a potential for information to come out. There's also always the potential for a disgruntled employee or ex-employee to try to take advantage of the current environment to stir the pot and/or try to get paid off.

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, LinvilleGorge said:

There's always a potential for information to come out. There's also always the potential for a disgruntled employee or ex-employee to try to take advantage of the current environment to stir the pot and/or try to get paid off.

How do you get paid off by an owner who did nothing and has already stated there will be no NDAs?

[Proudiddy]

Color me shocked...  NOT.

Look at all the "big" investigations the NFL has conducted since Goodell became commish.  All of them reportedly had all kinds of damning evidence that would prove the accusations to be true - i.e., Spygate, Ray Rice, etc., and the NFL demonstrated that their favorite way to tackle these scandals was to sweep them under the rug and not address them at all...  until they were forced to - i.e., when the Pats got caught cheating again with Deflate Gate, when the Rice video was made public, etc.  With Bounty Gate I would have to go back and refresh on, but iirc, the NFL didnt want to push the issue with that and drug their feet until more and more evidence went public , like the Gregg Williams audio...  and from a PR standpoint, for a huge, powerful organization, making the problem go away is better than acknowledging it and doling out consequences for it to admit wrongdoing, corruption, or scandal that affect the integrity and public perception of your corporation.

In summary, Goodell and the NFL are greedy, soulless shitbags.

[LinvilleGorge]

Just now, Mr. Scot said:

How do you get paid off by an owner who did nothing and has already stated there will be no NDAs?

Please tell me you don't actually believe this stuff from the NFL regarding no NDAs. The whole point of an NDA is for the information never to become public. No one is holding pressers to announce the signing of NDAs.

I doubt very seriously Tepper would be willing to pay off an employee to cover JR's dirt but that doesn't necessarily mean someone won't still give a try.

[PntherPryd]

We have zero current employee's with the nads to "shake down" Tepper.