NFL: Bruce Allen emails fall ‘outside the scope’ of Washington investigation

The NFL considers the 650,000 emails uncovered during its investigation into Washington’s workplace misconduct to fall “outside the scope” of that review, according to a report. 

The league told Pro Football Talk that the 650,000 emails discovered were sent to and from former Washington president Bruce Allen under his team email account. The NFL has resisted calls to release those emails, despite the fact that former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden resigned after it was discovered he used derogatory language in some of those messages. 

Portions of Gruden’s emails to Allen were leaked to the press. Redacted versions of the emails were also uploaded as court documents in a case between Washington owner Dan Snyder and Allen over the summer. 

The NFL has said it won’t release the emails or a written report from the investigation due to the “sensitivity of the allegations and request for confidentiality.” More than 40 women said they were sexually harassed while working for Washington. 

But many of the same women and former employees who participated in the league’s investigation are calling for the emails to be released.

“How would explicit images of cheerleaders, racist, homophobic and misogynistic language sent from WFT email accounts be considered outside of the scope of the investigation into #WashingtonFootball culture?” tweeted Megan Imbert, a former producer for the team. “Once again an insult to our intelligence. Release the report.”

According to the New York Times, some of the Allen and Gruden emails contained topless photos of the team’s cheerleaders. In other exchanges, Gruden used homophobic slurs to describe Commissioner Roger Goodell and used a racist stereotype to mock NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith. 

Allen has not commented on the emails that have surfaced. He worked for Washington from December 2009 to December 2019, and left the franchise after compiling a 62-100-1 record.

Earlier this year, Snyder and Allen went to court over Snyder’s claims that his former president served as a source in baseless stories published by an Indian website last year that tried to link Snyder to convicted billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Snyder also alleged Allen helped coordinate a misinformation campaign against him as part of Snyder’s dispute with the team’s (now former) minority partners. Snyder sought to depose Allen over several topics that included his potential communication with the minority partners and others. 

Allen fired back in his own court filing, denying the claims and revealing that Snyder tried to shortchange his former executive’s pay. Allen claimed he received the rest of his compensation by “initiating legal proceedings.” 

A month later, Snyder’s lawyers introduced emails from Allen — including the redacted Gruden messages — in an attempt to earn subpoenas to force Allen to turn over emails, text messages and other documents related to the lawsuit.  

Allen issued another filing after that, rejecting the premise. Allen’s lawyers wrote:  “This smattering of email that Snyder has presented to the Court, offer no support for the allegation that Allen may have evidence for use in the Indian action.” (Snyder had also sued the Indian-based media company.)

Snyder’s lawyers dismissed their case against Allen in August.