Ryan Vermillion, the Washington Football Team's director of sports medicine and head athletic trainer, is on leave, the team said in a brief statement Monday, three days after federal investigators executed a search warrant at the team’s training facility and a nearby home.
“Ryan Vermillion has been placed on administrative leave due to an ongoing criminal investigation that is unrelated to the team,” the team said, as reported by NBC Washington.
The searches occurred Friday afternoon at the INOVA Sports Performance Center in Ashburn and at a home in Loudoun County, sources said.
Residents of the townhome complex said they saw multiple U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents.
The DEA talked to multiple former players about Vermillion earlier this year, a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN's John Keim. One ex-player who spoke with the DEA said he did not have any useful information to share with them.
Vermillion did not travel with Washington this weekend to its game at Atlanta.
Vermillion is in his second season as Washington’s head athletic trainer, after 18 seasons in that role for the Carolina Panthers. He worked for the Panthers under current Washington head coach Ron Rivera for nine seasons.
According to ESPN, before his time in Carolina, Vermillion spent one season as Washington's director of rehabilitation. Before that, he spent nine seasons on Hall of Fame coach Don Shula's staff with the Miami Dolphins — four as head trainer and five as rehabilitation director.
