USAT: Cowboys Wire audio clip

USAT: Cowboys Wire

Feb 17, 2022

The NFL spoke Thursday regarding ESPN’s bombshell report that the Dallas Cowboys paid a $2.4-million-dollar settlement to four team cheerleaders after now-retired PR exec Rich Dalrymple was caught spying on them in a stadium dressing room in 2015. But the league’s response to the scandal was short, to the point… and somewhat baffling. - “We will decline comment as this was a club matter,” according to an email sent to ProFootballTalk by NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy. The implication is that the league is content to stay out of the matter, that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has already handled it in-house and will have to deal with any fallout on his own, now that the story has gone public. - That fallout, though, could potentially include answering questions from a Congressional committee. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has already been heavily involved in allegations of a hostile and sexually-charged workplace environment at the Washington Commanders. - Congress has requested tens of thousands of documents from the Commanders relevant to charges levied against the team and specifically owner Dan Snyder, who stepped down from day-to-day operations following a league investigation. - The Cowboys cheerleaders are currently bound by non-disclosure agreements that were part of their settlement they reached with the Cowboys in 2016. Could the Cowboys’ case be drawn into the Congressional proceedings? So says Don Van Natta Jr., the ESPN writer who broke the Dalrymple story on Wednesday. - “There’s a question about whether they would possibly want to hear from the cheerleaders,” Van Natta told Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan on Thursday. “If they’re subpoenaed by Congress, there is a clause in the settlement agreement that they could break the NDA and then speak publicly about these allegations.” - Non-disclosure agreements were a central issue in the scandal involving the Carolina Panthers in late 2017. Then-Panthers owner Jerry Richardson was accused by multiple employees of inappropriate workplace comments and conduct of a sexual nature. Though Richardson settled with the employees, he also included NDAs as part of their settlements. - Those NDAs “weren’t disclosed to the league,” according to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk, “creating a question as to whether the Panthers violated the reporting requirements of the Personal Conduct Policy. The Cowboys may face that same issue, if the Cowboys didn’t disclose the allegations and/or the resolution to the league.” - Richardson was pressured into selling the Panthers shortly after that scandal (for $2.2 billion). The Cowboys’ Dalrymple incident and an earlier accusation of Dalrymple taking “upskirt photos” of team vice president Charlotte Jones Anderson- the daughter of Jerry Jones- had happened three years prior. - The Cowboys maintain their investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing. - Dalrymple claims he thought he was alone in the cheerleaders’ locker room and left immediately upon realizing he wasn’t; the incident with Charlotte Jones Anderson, he says, never happened at all. - Yet the team did file a disciplinary letter in Dalrymple’s personnel file, revoked his access to the cheerleaders’ locker room, made sweeping security changes at the stadium, came to a six-figure settlement with his accusers, while allowing him to keep his high-profile position with the team for another six years. And they made sure no one would ever discuss their total denial of any wrongdoing with legally-binding non-disclosure agreements. - The NFL fined Richardson $2.75 million for his alleged workplace misconduct in Carolina. They fined Snyder $10 million for his in Washington, and the investigation there has now moved to a federal level. - - List - - Cowboys News: Dalrymple scandal has some calling for change of ownership - - - - - - - - List - - Run on QBs allows Cowboys to steal Linderbaum in latest PFF mock draft - - - - - - - - List - - Cowboys offseason: 11 prop bets for free agency, draft - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Email - - - - - Sign up - - - - - - - - Like this article? - Sign up for the Cowboys Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning - - - - An error has occured - - - Please re-enter your email address. - - - - - - Thanks for signing up! - - - You'll now receive the top Cowboys Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.

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Mar 17, 2022