NFL Films, the official production arm of the National Football League, has long produced popular content that chronicles the history of America’s most popular sport from an up-close, behind-the-scenes perspective. According to a new lawsuit, it also created something very different in its vast archive: a catalog of lewd shots of women—fans and cheerleaders—at sporting events.
The existence of such an index in NFL Films’ archives was alleged in an employment discrimination lawsuit filed earlier this year in New Jersey court by Victoria Russell, a former temporary worker. According to her complaint against NFL Films and the league, NFL Films had a database of timestamps on its footage with descriptions such as “cheerleaders buttocks,” “cheerleaders rear end,” “female fan in bikini top,” “naughty camera work,” “close up of cheerleader’s breasts; cleavage shot,” “random woman, cleavage shot,” and “random woman, cleavage shot.”
According to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, images are labeled as “sensitive” to ensure they are not used in future content and are no longer available for production. He also claimed that many of the descriptions Russell claimed were used were incorrect. According to him, NFL Films logs every frame of footage shot by its camera crews and broadcast networks, which inevitably includes images that may not be appropriate for inclusion in videos.
“Those frames are logged as ‘sensitive’ so that they can be removed from circulation, which means they won’t be accessible to employees whose job it is to find footage for productions,” McCarthy explained. “Ms. Russell lacked credentials for the logging system, and none of her responsibilities required her to access footage.”
Russell is suing the NFL over her treatment as a Black woman working in human resources between 2018 and 2022. She claims she was denied a dedicated workspace, pay raises, and advancement opportunities enjoyed by white and male employees. She claims she was fired abruptly after complaining to the league’s chief diversity officer, six months after receiving a promotion she claims was significantly delayed, while pregnant, and with no warnings about her performance.
The league denies that it discriminated or retaliated against her. “We are committed to providing a workplace that is respectful, diverse, inclusive, and free of discrimination and harassment for all employees,” McCarthy said. “During her time as a temporary staff member, the NFL did not discriminate or retaliate against Ms. Russell. We will vigorously defend ourselves against these allegations.”
According to people familiar with the league’s thinking, her contract as a temporary employee through an agency was not renewed due to persistent performance issues.
According to these sources, she had several conversations with her managers about her productivity falling far short of her peers before her contract was not renewed.
Two-thirds of the league’s hires last year were women or people of color, and the figure was even higher the year before, according to sources. The NFL’s top three human resources executives are Black, with two being women. The league employs approximately 1,100 people, not counting contractors.
The NFL Films database claim is sensitive because of a separate controversy over the league’s response to allegations of a toxic culture at the Washington football team, where the treatment of female employees—particularly cheerleaders—was central to the allegations of wrongdoing.
Employees of the team now known as the Washington Commanders claim that video production workers were told to create a video of sexually suggestive footage of the team’s cheerleaders for Washington owner Dan Snyder without the women’s knowledge. Snyder, who is considering selling the team, has denied any wrongdoing.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee said in a damning report late last year that cheerleader photo shoot “outtake” videos were made in 2008 and 2010. It also stated that the league had the films but refused to turn them over to the committee due to a legal agreement with the team.
NFL Films has been responsible for some of the most popular content about the sport for over a half-century. It has co-produced the HBO docuseries “Hard Knocks” for the past 20 years, which follows one team with exclusive access during training camp. NFL Films routinely documents iconic moments with extraordinary detail, heightened by dramatic soundtracks, using microphones on the sidelines. For example, in the days following the Super Bowl, it released video of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes on the sidelines saying the team was actually in the wrong formation when they scored their final touchdown.
Russell claims the vast archives had a dark side. She described the database in her suit as an example of how “as an HR employee, Russell also had a front-row seat to the NFL’s culture of sexual harassment.” According to her lawsuit, she discovered “a chat room log tracking timestamps on NFL footage and linking the timestamps to sexualized and offensive descriptions of women captured on that footage” while working on an audit of the HR system in 2018.
“The commentary associated with the timestamps contained approximately 14 pages of sexually derogatory remarks about women,” according to the lawsuit.
Russell is being represented by the law firm Vladeck, Raskin & Clark, which previously represented a New York Knicks executive who was suing Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden for sexual harassment, and which was tapped to investigate sexual misconduct allegations against former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. A $11.5 million settlement was reached in the MSG lawsuit.