NFL
Why was Commanders VP of content Rael Enteen fired? What did he say about Jerry Jones, Roger Goodell, and NFL fans?
The NFL world has been shaken by a video taken by an undercover reporter of a Washington Commanders executive’s disparaging comments.
On Wednesday, the Washington Commanders suspended their vice president of content, Rael Enteen, after a secret video was released in which he makes derogatory remarks about NFL players, fans, and executives, including Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. On Thursday, they fired him.
The video was taken by an undercover operative from James O’Keefe’s media company who Enteen met on the dating app Hinge. She captured footage of him making these remarks over the course of several dates, purposely steering the conversation towards the Commanders players and the league in general.
“Oh yeah, [Goodell] is a puppet. A $50 million puppet,”
What did Rael Enteen say in the secret video that got him suspended?
In the video, Enteen touches on a number of topics. He calls Commanders fans uneducated alcoholics, says that NFL players are homophobic and some are “dumb as hell”, that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is a “puppet”, and that Jerry Jones actually controls the league.
When asked about the demographics on the Washington Commanders roster, Enteen said this:
“Over 50 percent of our roster is either white religious - ‘and God says f**k the gays’ - another big chunk is very low-income African-American that comes from a community that is inherently very homophobic.”
He also accuses Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who he says “really runs the NFL”, of being homophobic and racist, saying he “hates gay people and Black people.”
Enteen went on to call the Washington Commanders fans “mouth breathers” and “high school-educated alcoholics” and the players “dumb as hell”.
“There’s a spectrum there. There’s some that are like, dumb as all hell, and there are others that are really smart. There’s also a sad but true reality, some start smart and they get hit in the head so much that they don’t stay smart.”
“I hate to say it, but athletes and especially NFL players who get their head knocked around a bunch of times, are more susceptible to stupid conspiracy theories.”
Enteen also had strong opinions on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL’s social justice initiatives, which he called “performative”.
“Oh yeah, [Goodell] is a puppet. A $50 million puppet,” said Enteen. “It [the social justice initiative] is not done out of the goodness of their heart and morality. It’s done because George Floyd changed the game... 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 has worked for the Washington Commanders since 2020. He previously worked for the New York Jets and the XFL. With the Commanders, he was the VP of content, which he said entails creating content from TikTok memes to documentaries and “selling hope” even when there is none.
“When there’s not much hope to sell, I still gotta dig deep to find it,” said Enteen. When asked why there isn’t much hope for the Commanders right now, Enteen replied, “because the stadium sucks - we had like pipes leaking sewage on our fans in the middle of the 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 has since made his social media private.
The Commanders quickly suspended Enteen after the video was leaked, pending further investigation, and released this statement:
“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 has since fired Rael Enteen.