The Washington Football Team has made history by hiring Jason Wright, making him the first Black team president in NFL history. Wright will be tasked with running the business side of the team, which is going to be difficult as Washington is in the process of finding a new name and looking for a site to build a new stadium.
"If I could custom design a leader for this important time in our history, it would be Jason," team owner Dan Snyder said in a statement. "His experience as a former player, coupled with his business acumen, gives him a perspective that is unrivaled in the league. We will not rest until we are a championship-caliber team, on and off the field."
Wright, who spent seven years in the league as a running back for the San Francisco 49ers, Atlanta Falcons, Cleveland Browns, and Arizona Cardinals, said that he is embracing the challenge of taking over for Bruce Allen, who was fired after the 2019 season.
"You could say there's a lot going on, you sure you want to take this on? Yeah, absolutely," Wright said. "[Their actions] made me really confident I could come in here and affect change, that I'd have the ability and autonomy to make real change."
Changing the toxic culture inside the organization is going to be one of his main priorities, and he plans to build a diverse team around him.
"The facts say when you have a diverse leadership team when you give more than one woman a voice in meaningful decisions, you get to better outcomes," Wright said. "It's so empowering to all of our employees and particularly those that may have had challenges in the past to actually exerting their voice and bringing their full selves is priority No. 1."
Wright said that he recognizes the significance of being the first Black team president in the NFL.
"What it tries to signal is that, at least in this organization, the hindrances that tend to be in place around Black talent in other places are breaking down," he said, "and that should send a signal more broadly to the shift in culture that Dan and Tanya Snyder, Coach Rivera and myself are now trying to make."
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