Melanie Coburn, a former Washington Football Team cheerleader and marketing director, has accused club owner Dan Snyder of leaking Jon Gruden's racist, homophobic, and misogynistic emails that led to his resignation as Las Vegas Raiders head coach last week.
Gruden's messages were included among 650,000 emails as part of the NFL's investigation into hostile workplace and sexual harassment allegations against the Washington Football Team (WFT) — a probe that ended in July, resulting in a $10 million fine for the club and Snyder ceding day-to-day control of the franchise to his wife, Tanya.
Gruden resigned as head coach of the Raiders last week after the emails he sent to then-WFT president Bruce Allen between 2011 and 2018 surfaced in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. An ESPN analyst at the time of the emails, Gruden used derogatory language to refer to league figures like commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL players' union executive director DeMaurice Smith.
The NFL has denied sharing the Gruden emails to either newspaper.
Now Coburn, who worked with the team's cheerleaders for 14 years, claims Snyder leaked the emails in an effort to push blame for the team's sexual harassment scandal onto Allen.
'I believe Dan Snyder leaked these emails,' Coburn told Fox News. 'I believe he's trying to put all the blame on Bruce Allen.'
Washington Football Team owner Dan Snyder (left) has been accused of leaking Jon Gruden's emails to the media in an effort to push blame for the club's sexual harassment scandal onto former team president Bruce Allen. Gruden's messages were included among 650,000 emails as part of the NFL's investigation into hostile workplace and sexual harassment allegations against the Washington Football Team (WFT) — a probe that ended in July, resulting in a $10 million fine for the club and Snyder ceding day-to-day control of the franchise to his wife, Tanya (right)
Melanie Coburn (left), a former Washington Football Team cheerleader, has accused club owner Dan Snyder of leaking Jon Gruden's racist, homophobic, and misogynistic emails that led to his resignation as Las Vegas Raiders head coach last week. Coburn, who worked with the team's cheerleaders for 14 years, claims Snyder leaked the emails in an effort to push blame for the team's sexual harassment scandal onto former WFT GM Bruce Allen (right)
Jon Gruden (pictured) resigned as head coach of the Raiders last week after the emails he sent to then-WFT president Bruce Allen between 2011 and 2018 surfaced in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. An ESPN analyst at the time of the emails, Gruden used derogatory language to refer to league figures like commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL players' union executive director DeMaurice Smith
According to Coburn, private investigators working for Snyder spoke to former team cheerleaders to question them about Allen, who was fired in Washington after a 3-13 season in 2019.
'He sent over a dozen private investigators to my colleagues' homes across the country … to show up on cheerleaders' doorstops and ask them what their relationship with Bruce Allen was,' Coburn said.
'I feel like he's trying to pin everything on Bruce, right, and place all the blame for all of the bad culture on him, which just isn't true.'
Snyder's attorney, Jordan Siev, denied Coburn's accusations in a statement to DailyMail.com.
'Any suggestion by Ms. Coburn that anyone associated with the Washington Football Team was behind any leaks concerning Jon Gruden is categorically false and part of a pattern of misinformation being spread by Ms. Coburn,' Siev said.
Allen did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment.
If Coburn's claim is correct, this wouldn't be the first time Snyder has shared some of these emails.
Redacted versions of some of Gruden's emails were also filed in federal court last June as part of Snyder's efforts to compel Allen to produce discovery in a separate defamation lawsuit filed in India against a tabloid website. Several of the emails included in that court filing and reviewed by DailyMail.com are among the messages leaked to the Times.
Snyder was attempting to prove Allen was involved in a plot to falsely connect him to disgraced investor
