THE LAS VEGAS Raiders announced the organization’s president, Dan Ventrelle, is no longer with the organization on May 6, 2022.
Ventrelle had been with the Raiders for 18 years and was named interim president in July 2021.
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Who is Dan Ventrelle?
Dan Ventrelle was enamored with the Las Vegas Raiders since he was a child, and while he said he never had the physical build to play the game, he wanted to be part of the environment.
“Since I was a little kid, I always loved the Raiders. Whenever they played in Chicago – or anywhere close for that matter – I was there.
“I wore a Raiders jacket to high school every day, I had the jerseys, the gear, anything I could get my hands on,” Dan Ventrelle told GC Magazine in 2017.
At the time, Ventrelle was the executive vice president and general counsel of the then-Oakland Raiders, who later became the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020.
He had carried his love of the sport through college, first while pursuing his undergraduate degree at Notre Dame and then while attending Michigan Law School.
As college graduation approached, Ventrelle reached out to the Raiders’ legal department, hoping for a position, but was told none were available.
He requested the department pass his resume on for review, and he and his family moved to California to pursue his dream of working for the Raiders.
After three years, a position opened in the Raiders’ legal department and Ventrelle was offered the job.
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He joined the team as a lawyer in 2003, before eventually moving up to the executive vice president, and in July 2021, Ventrelle was promoted to interim president.
Ventrelle was offered the position of interim president when Marc Badain resigned from the post in 2021.
The Raiders owner Mark Davis said in a statement reported by the NFL, that “(Ventrelle’s) experience on both the football and business sides of the organization make him the best choice to lead the Raiders organization at this time.”
He added, “The greatness of the Raiders is in its future and the future starts now.”
When Ventrelle was promoted to the position, he had been with the team for 17 years and was serving as the executive vice president and general counsel.
Ventrelle was placed in the position and remained under review to see if he could handle the pressures of the job, but Davis said at the time they would keep looking for someone else to potentially fill the position full-time.
“Dan will have an opportunity to take his 17 years of experience negotiating contracts on the football side of things and doing all our legal matters on the business side,” Davis told the Las Vegas Review-Journal at the time.
“He has a vast knowledge of the organization. He’s smart. We will see if he has the skills to lead.
”At the same time, we will undergo a (national) search to see if there might be someone out there born to be the Raiders president. You never know. But we are moving forward.”
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Why did he leave the Raiders?
Davis announced on May 6 that Ventrelle would be leaving the Raiders, and simply said in a statement on social media, “Dan Ventrelle is no longer with the Raiders organization. We will have no further comment at this time.”
Ventrelle claims that he was fired from the Raiders for bringing employees’ complaints about the alleged harsh workplace conditions to the NFL.
He said in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he had allegedly confronted Davis about the “issues” but said, “he was dismissive and did not demonstrate the warranted level of concern.
“Given this, I informed the NFL of these issues and of Mark’s unacceptable response. Soon thereafter, I was fired in retaliation for raising these concerns.
“I firmly stand by my decision to elevate these issues to protect the organization and its female employees.”
Davis did not respond directly to Ventrelle’s accusations but cited that as interim president, Ventrelle’s position was not meant to be long-term.
“I’ve heard about (Ventrelle’s) statement, but I won’t comment on it,” Davis told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“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 ESPN they “recently became aware of these allegations and take them very seriously,” adding, “We will promptly look into the matter.”
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