Ex-Raiders employee claims firing was retaliation for hostile work environment concerns

Former Las Vegas Raiders president Dan Ventrelle claims that he was fired on May 6 for reporting hostile work environment concerns to the team.

On Friday, May 6, the Las Vegas Raiders released a statement on their social media accounts to let the NFL world know that team president Dan Ventrelle was “no longer working with the Raiders organization,” which provided very little details.

Shortly after the Raiders’ announcement, Ventrelle released a statement of his own through the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he alleged that he was fired due to reporting concerns over a hostile work environment in the organization.

You can read Ventrelle’s full statement by clicking on the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Mick Akers’ tweet below:

Ex-Raiders president claims he was fired for reporting complaints of hostile work environment

Ventrelle says in his statement that he approached team owner Mark Davis about the complaints, but says he was “dismissive and did not demonstrate the warranted level of concern.” He says he then went to the NFL with the complaints, and he was fired by the Raiders afterward.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reached out to Davis, who would not comment on the allegations by Ventrelle.

“I’ve heard about (Ventrelle’s) statement, but I won’t comment on it,” said Davis. “The only thing I want made clear is that Dan Ventrelle was never president of the Raiders. He has always been the interim president. He was never named president. The interim was always a temporary designation to determine whether he would be the (full-time) president or not. I want that clear — he is not the president of the Las Vegas Raiders. Never was. I think there’s a misconception about that.”

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told the team, via ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez, that they “recently became aware of these allegations and take them very seriously. We will promptly look into the matter.”

Ventrelle was named team president last July after the team moved on from Marc Badain. Prior to that, Ventrelle had been with the organization since 2003, serving as a general counsel and executive vice president.