Commanders do not renew Julie Donaldson’s contract
There is a shakeup in Ashburn.
Julie Donaldson, Senior Vice President of Broadcasting, is being relieved of some of her duties.
Commanders Wire observed and found it strange that Donaldson was not on camera nor facilitating any of the activities which announced the transfer of ownership to the Josh Harris group last weekend.
Commanders Wire contacted Donaldson, and she was reluctant to convey anything initially. After three consecutive days, she relented, expressing there is going to be a change in her job description and responsibilities.
Donaldson, to her credit, was careful, attempting to be a good employee as the Commanders had expressed to her that any comment needed to go through Commanders PR.
The plans currently are that Donaldson will remain a part of the Commanders Radio Broadcast team, have appearances for the team throughout the year, and will thus be working game days.
Her contract expired after three seasons, regarding her weekly duties, which included hosting and overseeing the direction of the live streams from training camp and “Command Center” shows at the Ashburn facility.
In addition to last weekend’s absence during the celebratory times on air, was Donaldson’s absence on “Command Center” Wednesday. That show was hosted by Michael Jenkins.
Those following the team will recall that Ron Rivera is in charge of all football operations, and this falls under the business operations headed by Jason Wright.
This comes after Donaldson was nominated by National Chesapeake Capital Emmy for a Sports Anchor. Yet, the Commanders are choosing to part ways with her.
The Washington NFL franchise hired Donaldson in July 2020, making her the first female regular on-air voice of Washington’s radio broadcast. By doing so, Donaldson became the first female to have a full-time position in an NFL radio broadcast booth.
When Daniel and Tanya Snyder hired Donaldson, she was brought aboard as their first hire to change the culture of the organization. She was thus the highest-ranked female in the organization. Wright was hired one month later as team President.
She was given the freedom to hire her own team who would broadcast the games and those who would work on the productions team in Ashburn. She hired DeAngelo Hall as the analyst (later replaced by London Fletcher) and Bram Weinstein to handle the play-by-play. She also brought on Santana Moss, Fred Smoot and Logan Paulsen as part of the on-air team.
Donaldson has spoken in the past very highly regarding her broadcast team and also Ryan Yocum (Director of Studio and Broadcast production) as one who worked hard to keep things together well.
Julie had gained a decade of experience in the field, reporting on the Redskins, while working for Comcast Sports Net in Washington and then as a reporter, host and anchor for NBC Sports Washington. Previous to that decade, Donaldson also hosted the show “Mets Weekly” (MLB’s NY Mets) and “Heat TV” (NBA’s Miami Heat).
Donaldson, as requested by the team, pointed us to the Commanders Chief Communications Officer Thursday morning. At the time of publication, the team had not offered a comment.
