Congressional report on Dan Snyder and Commanders leaves us asking: Why can't NFL be better for women?

If over the past several years you’ve paid any attention to the NFL beyond “start or sit” columns from fantasy football experts and final scores, you know the league has a problem with how it deals with women.

Women who work for the league itself, women who work for individual teams in a more professional capacity, and women who work in more front-facing roles as cheerleaders.

It turns out that problem is a feature, not a bug.

The congressional investigation into Dan Snyder and the Washington Commanders' workplace didn't just affirm the stories of dozens of women who bravely stepped forward in recent years to recount the sexist, harmful and degrading environment they endured in the name of trying to fulfill their dreams of working for a professional sports team. It also affirmed that anything the NFL or commissioner Roger Goodell says about caring for the safety and well-being of women is a lie.

Some of us already knew this (it's me, I'm one of those some) because their actions have long since betrayed empty words.

But on page 77 of the 79-page report released last Thursday is the truth for all to see:

"Rather than address issues of workplace misconduct head on, the NFL has deferred responsibility to its clubs. The League’s Personal Conduct Policy defines the standards of conduct that applies to all League and club employees and owners.

"However, according to an internal document obtained by the Committee that explains reporting requirements under this policy, 'workplace complaints of sexual harassment,' including 'non-physical sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation' are not considered 'conduct that undermines or puts at risk the integrity of the NFL, NFL clubs or NFL personnel' under the NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy and instead defers to clubs to such matters internally."

In other words, the abject ignorance of the mistreatment of, in Washington's case, dozens of women, has never been a problem in league circles because the NFL has, according to an internal document congressional investigators say they found, essentially codified that it isn’t detrimental to the league.

Why can't NFL be better?

The NFL helped bury Snyder's dirty deeds because it feels the same way about female employees as Snyder and his male underlings do: if they — gasp! — have the temerity to work for the league office or one of its member clubs, they deserve whatever horror comes to them. They should have no expectation that they will not be treated like a slab of raw meat thrown into a den of hungry wolves. And if they are, suck it up, buttercup. It sees no issue with that type of behavior.

This helps explain why The New York Times’ report in February, which highlighted multiple instances of women alleging mistreatment at the NFL’s gleaming New York headquarters, never really caused a stir.

It's gotten to the point where Goodell and the NFL, supposedly obsessed with optics, don't even try to clean up clear public relations messes anymore.

They can look at their ratings, they can look at the amount of money they're getting from sponsors, and they see that they haven't paid a penalty in the public sphere for the myriad negative headlines, from blackballing Colin Kaepernick to using vile race-norming practices in evaluating retired players' brain injuries to the seemingly unending stream of Snyder-related problems. As long as the bottom line keeps growing, there's no reason to do better. To be better.

Despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary and no discernible reasons shown to feel this way, the little part of me that still tries to be an optimist knows the NFL could lead a sea change in many areas of American life. The league has so much cultural capital, so much cache, that if it cared to, were it not clearly chockablock with oligarchs whose concern is only themselves and accumulating more wealth than anyone should ever have or could ever hope to spend, it could be on the vanguard of civil rights issues, flexing its power to create real change.

Instead of kowtowing to a loud minority of bigoted fans and banning a Black quarterback who brought attention to the scourge of Black citizens being killed in the streets by agents of the state, it could have supported and promoted meaningful legislation aimed at curtailing such violence, perhaps S. 492, the Ending Qualified Immunity Act, introduced in the Senate last year by Sen. Ed Markey (D, Mass.).

Instead of just making PSAs encouraging fans to vote, it could have stopped harmful voter suppression laws from passing in Arizona by threatening to pull the upcoming Super Bowl LVII from Glendale. Goodell's predecessor, Paul Tagliabue, had the spine to do just that in 1991, when the league took the Super Bowl from Arizona over its resistance to enacting Martin Luther King Day in the state.

Instead of annually amending and consistently ignoring the spirit of the Rooney Rule, a rule that has become such a joke to the owner class that there are exactly as many Black head coaches today — three — as there were when it was created 19 years ago, the league could actively work against its anti-Black bias and become a national leader in hiring diverse, inclusive staffs, from the coaching ranks to the front office.

Instead of largely turning a blind eye to Snyder's boorish, boys-club workplace and actively helping him keep the full extent of his toxicity from the public eye, it could say in no uncertain terms that behavior such as was displayed in Washington for years is unacceptable, and set forth clear guidelines for how business is conducted in league and team environments.

Between fantasy football and the growth of legalized gambling, the NFL would not suffer financially if it did the right thing and led the way on these issues. It would represent a significant reversal for a steadfastly conservative ownership class, but again, we’re trying to cling to a tiny shred of optimism.

If the NFL led, much of America might follow.

The days of seeing corporations as feeling a sense of civic duty are seemingly over, if those days ever were. But that doesn't change the fact that the NFL could be a force for good. For positive change.

Instead, Dallas Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones was on the radio in his team’s market last week railing about the congressional investigation into Snyder and the Commanders, making an issue that should not be partisan — employee treatment in the workplace — into yet another Democrat vs. Republican debate.

The women who work in team offices, the women who work in NFL offices, the women who root for one of the league’s 32 teams all deserve better than a league that pays lip service to their physical, emotional and mental well-being in pursuit of doing their job.

They deserve better than a league that hides behind internal memos giving tacit permission to mistreat employees, empty platitudes about its commitment to ensuring workplaces are "free from harassment and discrimination" and aligns itself with objectively terrible people like Snyder over women who deserve an apology and accountability.

All in the name of greed.