Topline
California and New York’s attorneys general launched a joint investigation into the NFL on Thursday over allegations of workplace discrimination and a gender pay gap at the country’s biggest sports league’s offices, adding to years of scrutiny over the NFL’s treatment of women.
Two states attorneys general are investigating the NFL over allegations of gender discrimination.
Key Facts
The investigation will focus on the league’s alleged “hostile work environment” at its offices in California and New York, including potential violations of state and federal pay equity and anti-discrimination laws, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and New York Attorney General Letitia James announced in a statement Thursday morning.
Bonta and James also issued the NFL a subpoena for “relevant information” into the allegations.
The NFL told Forbes the allegations are “entirely inconsistent” with the league’s policies and practices and that the NFL does “not tolerate discrimination in any form.”
The investigation comes just over a year after the New York Times interviewed more than 30 women who worked for the NFL who alleged retaliatory gender discrimination after they filed complaints with human resources, including one woman who said she was pushed by a senior executive who kept his job, and another who said the league did nothing after she reported gender bias.
Last month, a former female manager filed a lawsuit against the league in Los Angeles County Superior Court, calling the league a “boys’ club that” engaged in age and gender discrimination and arguing the NFL has a culture of “pervasive sexism,” while the federal Congressional Committee on Oversight and Reform launched a probe last year into workplace misconduct allegations against Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder.
Bonta and James argue the league has “not taken sufficient effective steps to prevent discrimination, harassment and retaliation,” despite a series of recent allegations, including a 2018 lawsuit from a former NFL Network wardrobe stylist over sexual harassment, age discrimination and workplace retaliation.
Key Background
The NFL has come under fire in recent years for sexual assault, harassment and domestic abuse allegations. In 2014, video footage showed former Balimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching his fiancee in an elevator, while last year, Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson settled more than 20 suits over sexual assault allegations while he was a member of the Houston Texans. Meanwhile, the Washington Commanders have been accused of tolerating rampant sexual harassment—and a congressional investigation last year said Snyder tried to silence accusations against himself and others. In 2016, two years after the Rice video surfaced, Commissioner Roger Goodell introduced a policy requiring the league to interview at least one woman for every open executive position—an expansion of the league’s so-called Rooney Rule requiring teams to hire at least one minority candidate for head coach openings.
Tangent
A 2022 University of Central Florida and Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports report found that gender equity in the league has improved in recent years, with the league hiring women for referee positions and teams hiring women as coaches—though no women have been chosen as head coaching or offensive or defensive coordinator roles. According to the report, roughly 41.3% of the NFL’s workforce in its league offices are women as of 2022, up 2.5 percentage points from 2021 and 11.7 points from 2014, though just seven women are principal owners of the NFL’s 32 teams.
Big Number
82%. That’s the share of NFL games that made up the top 100 most-watched telecasts last year, an increase from 75% in 2021, according to data from Nielsen. Despite the league’s pledge to boost female viewership, the number of women who watch NFL games has decreased over the past eight years, falling to 5.9 million viewers per game last year, after a peak of 6.3 million viewers in 2015.
Further Reading
The Audience Disparity Of NFL Games And Everything Else Widens (Forbes)
Sex Scandals Don’t Seem To Be Helping The NFL’s Goal Of Attracting More Women Fans (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/05/04/nfl-investigated-over-workplace-discrimination-by-new-york-and-california/