Human trafficking by the Washington Redskins?

Racism, misogyny earn Redskins’ Daniel Snyder title of NFL’s worst owner

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/nancy-armour/2018/05/02/washington-redskins-daniel-snyder-owner-racist-sexist/574859002/

Daniel Snyder is an embarrassment, the worst owner in the NFL.

That bar is set low, I know. Houston Texans owner Robert McNair has made racist statements while Jerry Richardson is selling the Carolina Panthers under a cloud of sexual misconduct allegations. Among the owners who have twisted themselves into pretzels making excuses for players accused of domestic violence are Jerry Jones, John Mara, George McCaskey and Steve Bisciotti – am I forgetting anyone?

And of course there are the owners who thumb their noses at their fan base, with Dean Spanos coming in at Public Enemy No. 1.

But Snyder tops them all, unabashed in exhibiting both blatant racism and, as reported Wednesday in a New York Times story about his team’s cheerleaders, misogyny.

The Times story detailed a 2013 trip the Washington cheerleaders took to Costa Rica for a calendar photo shoot, during which the women posed topless or in body paint while team sponsors and suite holders – all men, of course – gawked.

“At one of my friend’s shoots, we were basically standing around her like a human barricade because she was basically naked, so we could keep the guys from seeing her,” one of the cheerleaders told the Times. “I was getting so angry that the guys on the trip were skeezing around in the background.”

One night during the trip, the Times reported that nine of the 36 cheerleaders were “hand-picked” to act as escorts at a nightclub for some sponsors. As if that’s not gross enough, the Times said two team officials, senior vice president for operations Lon Rosenberg and president of business operations Dennis Greene, were on hand.

“The issue was that management seemed to condone all of this,” one cheerleader who was there told the Times.

And why wouldn’t it? After Snyder bought the team in 1999, the cheerleaders underwent a noticeable transformation. Or, as the Washington City Paper described it in 2010, “bringing the craft closer to pole dancing with every season.”

Because in the eyes of team owners like Snyder, cheerleaders are sex objects, with no other purpose than to titillate male fans and TV viewers. I know, it’s shocking to see this kind of mindset from someone who has been oh, so enlightened on confronting racism.

And by oh, so enlightened, I mean not one bit, defiantly clinging to a virulent nickname and logo.

“We’ll never change the name,” he told USA TODAY in May 2013. “It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.”

Snyder continues to insist Washington’s nickname “honors” Native Americans, and he cherry picks polls and surveys to find those that bolster his argument. But the height of privilege – and by privilege, I mean that enjoyed by white people, particularly white men – is thinking you can tell minorities or disadvantaged people what is and isn’t offensive to them.

That Snyder is so reprehensible would probably be overlooked by many if he was actually a good steward of his team. But he’s not.

Washington has made the playoffs four times since 2005, and won one game. While most NFL teams would give just about anything for a franchise quarterback, Washington broke Robert Griffin III and then frittered away a chance to lock up Kirk Cousins.

There very well might be owners who are worse than Snyder. But nobody is as bad at hiding it as he is.