John Keim, ESPN Staff WriterSep 4, 2024, 02:41 PM ET
- John Keim covers the Washington Commanders for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2013 after a stint with the Washington Post. He started covering the team in 1994 for the Journal Newspapers and later for the Washington Examiner. He has authored/co-authored four books. You can also listen to him on ‘The John Keim Report’, which airs on ESPN Richmond radio, and follow him on Twitter @john_keim
ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Commanders have suspended an employee who made comments about the team’s players being anti-gay, accused Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones of being racist and anti-gay and called NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a “$50 million puppet.”
The team said it has suspended its vice president of content, Rael Enteen, who has been with the organization for four years, for comments he made to an undercover reporter for the O’Keefe Media Group.
According to a social media video from the media group, Enteen had met the reporter on the dating app Hinge and met with her twice at local restaurants. According to James Keefe, the CEO of the O’Keefe Media Group, the interviews took place at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., in June.
“The language used in the video runs counter to our values at the Commanders organization,” a team spokesperson said in a statement. “We have suspended the employee pending an investigation and will reserve further comment at this time.”
He told the undercover reporter that, “over 50% of our roster is white religious, and God says, ‘F— the gays.’ Their interpretation. I don’t buy any of that. Another big chunk is low-income African Americans that comes from a community that is inherently very homophobic.”
On the video, Enteen also said some players are “dumb as hell” and said some who were smart don’t stay that way after getting hit in the head too many times. He also said those who “get their heads knocked around a few times” are more susceptible to conspiracy theories.
Enteen also said, “I don’t think the commissioner of the NFL hates gay people, hates black people. Jerry Jones, who really runs the NFL, I think he hates gay people, black people.”
Enteen, who was with the New York Jets for two years before coming to Washington, called the league’s social justice initiatives “performative.”
“It’s not done out of the goodness of their heart,” he said. “It’s done because George Floyd changed the game … It’s to make as much money as possible. The NFL cares about the bottom line, like any corporation, above all else.”
Enteen said because the league makes so much money, “they can faux prioritize DEI for the sake of good publicity.”
Enteen told the undercover reporter that “most of the fans are high-school-educated alcoholics” and called them “mouth breathers.”
Enteen also told the reporter, whose name was not revealed and who can only be heard on the video, that his job is to sell hope. Three years ago, there were videos of pipes leaking. Fans said it smelled like sewage, but Enteen said he tweeted out that it was just water.
“That,” he said, “is state-run media.”