The Dallas Cowboys are always in the news. As the NFL's top draw, there's always a lot of glitz and glamour when it comes to America's Team. However, there's good publicity and bad publicity, and this latest incident involving their former Senior Vice President of Public Relations and Communications Rich Dalrymple certainly falls in the latter.

According to a report from ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr., the Cowboys paid cheerleaders $2.4 million as a settlement for voyeurism incidents that Dalrymple allegedly engaged in. He retired after 32 years with the franchise earlier this month.

Both allegations involving Dalrymple are disturbing, and both happened in 2015. The first is that Dalrymple was accused of spying on four Cowboys cheerleaders during a home game as they undressed inside the locker room. The other claims that Dalrymple used his phone to take "upskirt photographs" of Charlotte Jones who is the Cowboys' executive vice president and chief brand officer as well as the daughter of Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones. This particular incident happened during the 2015 NFL draft.

Dalrymple didn't respond to ESPN's interview request. However, he issued a statement denying both allegations.

"People who know me, co-workers, the media and colleagues, know who I am and what I'm about," Dalrymple said. "I understand the very serious nature of these claims and do not take them lightly. The accusations are, however, false. One was accidental and the other simply did not happen. Everything that was alleged was thoroughly investigated years ago, and I cooperated fully."

The timing of Dalrymple's retirement does seem a bit suspect here, but the former Cowboys' executive says he got word of the report after he announced it.

“This has nothing to do with my retirement from a long and fulfilling career, and I was only contacted about this story after I had retired," Dalrymple told ESPN.

A former member of the cheerleading squad spoke about how the incidents were known by several other members as well.

“It hurt my heart because I know how much it affected the people who were involved,” the former cheerleader said. “It was a very … ‘shut the book, don’t talk about it, this person is going to stay in his position’ … They just made it go away.”

Jim Wilkinson, a communications consultant with the team, says in Natta Jr.'s report that the team thoroughly investigated both alleged incidents involving Rich Dalrymple and found no foul play on his part. As a part of the examination, Dalrymple's phone was searched.

"The organization took these allegations extremely seriously and moved immediately to thoroughly investigate this matter," Wilkinson said. "The investigation was handled consistent with best legal and HR practices and the investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing."

The ESPN network went on to mention Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones and his role in keeping this shocking story out of the public eye.

“Documents obtained by ESPN show that in 2016, team owner Jerry Jones paid the four cheerleaders and their lawyers a $2.4-million-dollar confidential settlement. As part of the agreement, the cheerleaders promised to keep quiet about the alleged incident. Three people with knowledge of the situation told ESPN shortly after the alleged incident, a Cowboys security guard wanted to report the allegation to the police, but law enforcement was never called. A team representative said the security guard never mentioned wanting to call the police in his interview with human resources later that day. According to the sources, team officials urged the four cheerleaders to report the incident to the team’s HR department, and they did. But they were unsatisfied with the resulting investigation.”

This is all bad and extremely troubling when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys as a brand and organization, and more than likely it's not going away anytime soon.

Feature image via-Barbara Gauntt/Clarion Ledger via Imagn Content Services, LLC