NFL uncovers emails between Washington Football president, top lawyer

Things keep getting worse for the Washington Football Team, as recently discovered emails between then-president Bruce Allen and NFL lawyer Jeff Pash present further evidence of corruption within the organization.

A New York Times article alleges Allen sent decades worth of emails to Pash in which he “casually joked about Native Americans and racial and political diversity, griped about referees and league initiatives to improve player safety, and arranged tickets and perks for his correspondent.”

Pash, the top adviser to commissioner Roger Goodell, was in charge of an investigation against the team during that time frame. Many of the uncovered emails show Pash reassuring Allen, the president from 2009-2019, that things would go is way.

The investigation is part of the same one that revealed racist, sexist and homophobic emails from then-Washington coach Jon Gruden, who has since resigned as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. More than 650,000 emails were combed through revealing a “clubby” relationship between the president and league official.

When the NFL fined the Washington Football Team $15,000 for manipulating its player injury report, Allen reached out to Pash through emails and the penalty was rescinded. In another email, Allen expressed concern that the commissioner would accuse him of breaking rules on the signing of free agents, prompting his friend to reassure him, “He knows who it is and that it is not you.”

In October 2013, an NFL executive had turned down Allen’s appeal of a $15,000 fine because the team’s coach at the time, Mike Shanahan, had doctored the injury report.

Pash overruled his staff’s decision to issue the fine, replying to Allen’s email by saying that the team did not need to pay the $15,000 “or any other amount with respect to this matter and you should consider the fine to be rescinded in its entirety.”

After a crisis erupted over allegations of sexual harassment of the Washington cheerleaders, Allen contacted Pash, who offered reassuring words.

“I know that you are on it and would not condone something untoward,” he told Allen.

In emails not involving Pash, however, Allen, Gruden and other men had shared photos of women wearing only bikini bottoms, including one picture of two Washington team cheerleaders.

“Communication between league office employees and club executives occurs on a daily basis,” Jeff Miller, the league’s executive vice president of communications, said in a statement Thursday. “Jeff Pash is a respected and high-character NFL executive. Any effort to portray these emails as inappropriate is either misleading or patently false.”

The two also seemed to commiserate on politics and some of the league’s struggles with diversity and inclusion, including its hiring practices.

Pash sympathized with Allen’s frustration over the 2016 hiring of Jocelyn Moore, a Black woman who became the league’s chief lobbyist on Capitol Hill after working for several Democratic senators.

“Curious — is there a rule against hiring Libertarians, Independents or even a Republican?” Allen asked.

“No,” Pash replied, “but it can sometimes look that way!”

Referring to a rule that requires NFL teams to interview minority candidates for coaching and executive jobs, Allen said, “We have the Rooney rule …. So I’m going to propose a Lincoln Rule at the next meeting.”

Pash helped Allen defend the team’s former name, widely viewed as a slur of Native Americans, against criticism. In May 2014, Allen sent Pash an article that said that Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington — a vocal critic of the team’s name — went to a high school that still had a mascot with Native American imagery for its sports teams.

Pash responded: “No way. Too good to be true.”

Allen was fired in December of 2019 following a slew of scandals and a 3-13 finish. Pash, who stills works for the NFL, declined to speak to the New York Times.