Dan Snyder Scandal Update: Washington Whistleblower Speaks Out About Infamous Cheerleader Video
One of the many allegations made against Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder involves the recording of topless cheerleaders and having those recordings edited into a highlight reel-type of product.
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When those allegations surfaced in August 2020, Snyder denied knowledge of the tapes and said he certainly didn't order their creation.
Since then, an investigation led by attorney Beth Wilkinson was started by Snyder, taken over by the NFL, completed, and as of yet, has not seen the light of day.
In fact, the original plan when Wilkinson began her query was to produce a written report, but the league instead asked for an oral version of her findings.
These developments, at least in part, are why the original source to the Washington Post about the candid cheerleader video has decided to make himself known to the public.
And it's why he decided to go on The Team 980 this week, to discuss the events leading up to his coming into possession of the video in the first place.
"With the way the 'Wilkinson Report'...was sort of buried and shelved by the NFL, it just angered me," Thomas Kercheval told Chris Russell and Pete Medhurst during their daily radio show, Russell and Medhurst. "And I thought it's time to put my name to some of these things if that helps the process."
Kercheval was a freelance video editor from around 2006-2019 for Washington's NFL franchise and said he'd come in often to help edit content for the team in-season, and work on a team documentary from home during the offseason.
"In 2010 I had come into the park for one of those evenings where I was going to work on something," Kercheval said. "On this particular evening, I came into the editing bay...and the first thing I saw on the monitor was a topless cheerleader."
When Kercheval asked the team editor sitting at the workstation what he was working on, the unnamed employee told him, "These are outtakes from the cheerleader video shoot we just did, and we were told by the owner to make this for him."
Kercheval then says he responded by saying, "So you're telling me, that Dan Snyder ordered this outtakes video to be made, of this nudity of these cheerleaders," to which the employee, "shook his head 'yes'".
In the interview, part of which is also aired on an episode of the Locked On Commanders Podcast, Kercheval continues discussing the nature of the images seen in the video, the fact background music from notable rock bands was then placed in the background to accompany the images, and his decision to send the video to the Washington Post after possessing it for 10 years.
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Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
While it's not new information, it certainly puts another name and face to the accusations from the detailed account of one person responsible for the cultivating and delivery of evidence against the franchise and its owner.
Whether or not Kercheval's decision to go public as the whistleblower in this incident will have a profound impact on the mountain of issues facing Snyder or not will be seen in the days and weeks to come.
But if history has shown anything, it's that when one accuser feels bold enough to publicly own their accusations, others are sometimes inspired to do the same.
And people, not reports, are what this story is really about.
