NFL

Who is Sandra Douglass Morgan? The Raiders team president took over for Dan Ventrelle in July

The Raiders hired the first black woman NFL team president ever in July 2022: Sandra Douglass Morgan took over a distraught front office in Las Vegas last summer.

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The Raiders made headlines for hiring Morgan, and for all the right reasons.

The Las Vegas Raiders made history in the NFL as they hired the first ever black woman president in the league. The franchise announced the hire of Sandra Douglass Morgan on July 7, 2022 at Allegiant Stadium.

Morgan said she was excited to join the Raiders as they embarked on “one of the most exciting times in the history of our organization.”

The Raiders front office problems

Morgan is a fast-forward individual who was previously the first Black woman to chair Nevada’s Gaming Control Board back in May 2019. During her introductory news conference, Morgan made it clear she was not going to be avoiding the dysfunctional front office problems that have been emerging during the last period. As the Raiders’ third team president in just over a year, she knows her role will be to help the franchise usher in a new healthier culture and reputation.

“Let me be clear – I am not here to avoid or sidestep problems or concerns that need to be addressed,” Morgan said in her letter to the Raiders. “I’ve given long and thoughtful consideration to joining you, and I’ve done so because I believe in the promise of the Raiders. Most importantly, I believe in your core values of integrity, community, and commitment to excellence. I will expect you to embody those and to hold me accountable to doing the same.”

In July 2021, Marc Badain suddenly resigned after being president for eight years and part of the organization since 1991, after which Dan Ventrelle took over only to get fired in May 2022. Ventrelle later claimed the reason for his firing was due to hoisting several employees’ allegations that Mark Davis, the Raiders’ owner, “created a hostile work environment.”

Previously, in October 2021, Las Vegas’s head coach Jon Gruden had resigned after racist, sexist and homophobic allegations were made from the then-Washington Football Team’s general manager Bruce Allen.

Now Las Vegas seems to be rising above all these past events by not only hiring Morgan, but by also hiring a new vice president of human resources, and another woman, Heather DeSanto.

Who is Sandra Douglass Morgan?

Before being appointed as chair in 2019, Morgan was an executive for AT&T in Nevada, managing the company’s government and community affairs. She was also the city attorney for North Las Vegas- from 2008 to 2016- and served as an athletic commissioner on the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

All that aside, Morgan does have something that ties her to the NFL. Her husband, Don Morgan, was an NFL player for the Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings from 1999 to 2002.

Have there been other women presidents in the NFL?

Morgan joins Buffalo’s Kim Pegula, who became the Bills’ co-owner in 2018, and the Carolina Panthers’ Kristi Coleman as the third woman to be hired as a team president in NFL history.

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