NFL General Counsel Helped Washington Football Team Evade a Fine: NYT

The NFL’s general counsel overrode a fine against the Washington Football Team issued by his own staff, an assist to a team president he enjoyed a chummy relationship with, according to emails between the two made public by The New York Times. The lawyer, Jeff Pash, and the executive, Bruce Allen, often exchanged friendly and sympathetic emails, despite the fact that Pash was in charge of penalties levied against the team for misconduct, according to the report. In October 2013, the Washington Football Team, then known as the Redskins, was fined $15,000 because the team’s coach doctored an injury report. After the league declined an appeal, Allen simply wrote in an email to Pash and other NFL executives, “BS.” That seemed to be all it took to convince Pash, who nixed the penalty, writing back to Allen that he should “consider the fine to be rescinded in its entirety.”