Former cheerleaders of the Washington Football Team involved in the recent email scandal are dealing with emotional trauma over the situation.

“They’re all traumatized,” Melanie Coburn, a four-year Washington cheerleader and the squad’s marketing director for 10 years, told NPR.

Former cheerleaders of the WFT were part of the investigation findings by the NFL into the team’s workplace culture, which reportedly included emails containing inappropriate photos of cheerleaders that were secretly distributed by coaches via email.

The emails included inappropriate language and “photos of women wearing only bikini bottoms, including one photo of two Washington team cheerleaders,” according to the New York Times.

Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden is accused of sharing those photos via email in NFL circles.

“It’s just more anxiety-producing evidence that very private, compromising content was circulating not just amongst our team but apparently the entire NFL. So it’s been an emotional 24 hours, to say the least,” Coburn told the website, calling on the NFL to release the full investigation report.

The emails were reported by the New York Times on Monday, and also exposed Gruden for using racist, homophobic and misogynistic language. Gruden resigned from his position later that day.

Coburn, who was not specifically targeted in the emails, started a petition Friday, calling on the NFL and the franchise to “do the right thing for women” and “make Washington’s sexual misconduct investigation public.” Multiple former WFT cheerleaders supported the petition. 

The alleged inappropriate photos derived from a past swimsuit photo shoot, where WFT staffers were reportedly told to take behind-the-scenes footage of cheerleaders while changing and moving around, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the story in 2020. The content allegedly included bare nipples and pubic areas of cheerleaders in a 10-minute video that was reportedly shared with WFT owner Daniel Snyder. 

Before the New York Times published the emails Monday, WFT cheerleaders previously complained about inappropriate behavior within the WFT organization. Some cheerleaders filed lawsuits alleging a secret, uncensored video taken at a squad photo shoot had been distributed to team executives. The lawsuits were settled out of court, and the cheerleaders signed non disclosure agreements in December. 

The NFL’s investigation into the WFT’s culture and workplace initially concluded in July, and resulted in a $10 million fine against the team. The investigation was reopened this summer to review part of the 650,000 emails involved in the matter — which led to Gruden’s downfall.

Coburn, among other former cheerleaders, have expressed the emotional turmoil they’ve experienced since the new investigation findings were made public. 

“If it wasn’t for [the New York Times article,] we would’ve never known that those pictures were going through the mail servers between these two really important people in the NFL,” Candess Correll, a Washington cheerleader from 2016 until 2021, told The Daily Beast. She noted that WFT cheerleaders still have not seen the investigation report or its results despite being “the actual victims” of the situation.

On Tuesday, attorneys for 40 former WFT employees released a statement, calling for the NFL to release the full findings of its investigation.