More than a year after former general manager Scot McCloughan filed a grievance against the Washington Redskins over his March 2017 firing, an NFL arbitrator has ruled in the team’s favor, according to a person familiar with the process.
Details of the ruling by NFL-appointed arbitrator Peter Harvey, a former New Jersey attorney general, were not available. But it is a final decision, with no avenue for appeal under the NFL’s system.
McCloughan filed the grievance with the NFL in summer 2017, contending that he was fired unjustly. During his tenure, the Redskins posted back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in 19 years (winning the NFC East with a 9-7 record in 2015 and finishing 8-7-1 in 2016).
The Redskins, however, asserted they fired McCloughan “for cause.” Within days of McCloughan’s firing on March 9, 2017, the team-owned radio station speculated that McCloughan was abusing alcohol. A team official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Washington Post that the general manager was ousted because he had reported to work intoxicated.
A representative for McCloughan, 47, who currently runs a private scouting service from his home in Colorado and earlier this year was hired as a draft consultant to the Cleveland Browns, could not be reached to comment. The Redskins declined to comment.