It’s not the season opener that we wanted. Everyone is excitedly waiting for the NFL season to start. But wait!! There is a new scoop out that might just shock you or make you sit up straight in your chairs. Washington Commanders‘ Vice President of Content, Rael Enteen went on a date. What he was unaware of was that the date was an undercover journo. Their talks during the date have leaked, and boy oh boy, it’s explosive!

Looks like Enteen went too far to impress his date! So he did not keep the conversation quite personal. Instead, the executive went at lengths to drop some insider info on a range of topics. He hovered from players’ intelligence to the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and whatnot! And if that is not enough, even the NFL fans were also not spared.

Enteen became a part of the Commanders in 2020 as a Senior Director of Content Strategy. He was promoted to Vice President of Content in April 2022. Previously, he worked for the New York Jets. He served the AFC East franchise between 2016 and 2018 as the Director of Digital and Social Media. Let us take a look at the bombs he dropped.

A controversial take on the African-American players of the Commanders

“Over 50 percent of our roster is either white religious – and God says f— the gays in their interpretation. I don’t buy into any of that, but that’s the facts. Another big chunk is very low-income African-American that comes from a community that is inherently very homophobic,” Enteen ruled. Hold your heart. More is there about the players.

Not enough intelligence in the league?

When Enteen was asked about the NFL players, despite accepting that he has worked with some “smart” people, the rest of his comment was a shocker. “There’s a spectrum there. There’s some that are dumb as all hell and there are others that are very smart. I think there’s also a real sad but true reality that some start smart and they get hit in the head so much that they don’t stay smart,” Enteen stated. He also said that the NFL players who are knocked in their heads come up with “stupid conspiracy theories”. His description of his job was also no less explosive.

Promote or suppress, at any cost

“My job is to sell hope to the fans, right? I need them buying tickets. When there’s not much hope to sell, I still gotta dig deep to find it,” Enteen explained. He was asked why hope was not there.

Taking a dig at the Commanders Enteen said: “Because the stadium sucked. We had like, pipes leaking sewage on our fans in the middle of a game. And I have to put out a social post saying like, ‘It wasn’t sewage water. We promise.’ That is state-run media.” Enteen was referring to the incident that took place in 2021 at the FedEx field.

Enteen’s thoughts on who runs the league

This was probably the most controversial remark Enteen made. “I don’t think the commissioner of the NFL [Goodell] hates gay people, hates black people. So Jerry Jones for instance, the owner who really runs the NFL, I think he hates gay people and black people.” That is not all he has to say about the functioning of the NFL. “He’s a puppet. A $50 million puppet,” Enteen said about Godell.

Taking a dig at the NFL’s social justice initiatives

“I mean that the social justice efforts are a performance for the sake of public perception, and not because they want to actually push progress,” Enteen said blatantly. He also alleged that these measures were taken to “make as much money as possible.” He further added, “I think the NFL cares about the bottom line like any corporation above all else. And they don’t need to really pinch pennies because they make so much revenue. Therefore, they can faux-prioritize DEI for the sake of good publicity.”

After his words came to light, The Commanders were quick to take action as they announced banning him to save its reputation. “The language used in the video runs counter to our values at the Commanders organization, We have suspended the employee pending an internal investigation and will reserve further comment at this time,” the team said in a statement to Fox News Digital. While Enteen’s comments are explosive, to say the least, The NFL’s reputation is also not squeaky clean over the years, especially on the grounds of racial discrimination.

The NFL struggles to improve its image despite positive developments

First, if we look at the NFL commissioner, reactions are mixed. In a survey conducted by Harris Poll in collaboration with Sportico in 2021, Goodell received a 57% favorability rating, though that was considerably lower than respondents’ opinion of the league overall. Controversies have been quite a few for Goodell.

Over the years, Goodell has been in a bad light for incidents ranging from the league’s handling of instances of domestic violence by players to its response to Colin Kaepernick and others’ on-field protests. He has also been criticized for his takes on player health and safety as well as officiating changes. If there is one thing that has plagued the league over all these years, that is the allegation of racial discrimination while recruiting coaches.

One of the notable steps taken by the NFL is bringing the Rooney Rule in 2003. The rule requires teams to interview at least one person of color before hiring a head coach. The league has also expanded the rule to encourage teams to hire minority assistant coaches. But if we take a look at the real picture, one might feel like, it still has a long way to achieve the target.

Almost two decades after the rule came into being, the Washington Post had conducted a survey in 2022 to find the representation of the black coaches in the league. The picture was somewhat grim. If we look back in history, in 1989, the Los Angeles Raiders hired Art Shell, who became the first Black head coach in the modern history of the National Football League. But in three decades after that, the representation of the black coaches has been scanty. But there have been periodic positive phases.

One such came in the mid-2000s, the period that saw a small uptick in the number of of black coach hires that brought a ray of hope for racial equity. But if we look at the entire picture, only 24 black head coaches have been hired in 33 years since Shell was appointed. According to the investigation by the Washington Post, black coaches are put under more stringent eligibility requirements in comparison to their white counterparts. However, the 2024 season saw a significant improvement in that direction.

There were six Black head coaches entering the 2024 — Morris, Mayo, Pierce, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin, Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles and Houston’s DeMeco Ryans — which doubles the number from the 2023 season. The other minority coaches are Canales, who is Mexican American, Miami’s biracial Mike McDaniel, and Robert Saleh of the New York Jets, who is of Lebanese descent. This record-setting number is double the number of the 2023 season. It remains to be seen if the league can maintain the positive stride in the days to come.