In the NFL, where a month can feel like a decade, stories often develop and resolve quickly. The Congressional inquiry regarding the Washington Football Team investigation and the team’s handling of it will not be resolved quickly.
As explained by Andrew Beaton and Louise Radnofsky of the Wall Street Journal, the push and pull between the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee and the NFL is only just beginning.
The league, as we understand it, won’t be challenging the propriety of the probe. Instead, the back-and-forth will be more about shaping carefully the contours of the information that ultimately is provided. Through it all, the league will be trying to steer the process away from triggering a public hearing.
The Oversight and Reform Committee conducts many investigations. A small percentage of them morph into major ordeals. For the league, victory entails avoiding the prospect of people like Commissioner Roger Goodell, WFT owner Daniel Snyder, and/or lawyer Beth Wilkinson being grilled by members of Congress on live TV.
The league has lawyers who will try to finesse the situation. The question becomes whether and to what extent the Committee is intent on pushing the issue.
While other NFL-related scandals have helped the league turn the page (for now) on the WFT debacle, the constant churn of controversy could make the Committee more inclined to sink its teeth as deep as possible into the issue that has landed on its radar screen. And it could prompt Congress to look for more opportunities to regulate and hold accountable the biggest and most profitable sports league in America.