The Commanders are one of the coolest stories in sports right now. Unless you’re Dan Snyder apparently! The former Washington owner, who presided over decades of disastrous football and somehow even worse off-field stuff, isn’t exactly keen on his old team rising from the ashes in the second year under new ownership and making a deep run.
Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta, in a lengthy ESPN article about Snyder, heard from sources who described Snyder’s feelings through a friend that had dinner with Snyder during the season in London and came back stateside with a clear message:
“He f—-ng hates it,” Snyder’s dinner companion told the colleague.
I mean, if you followed Snyder’s history as an NFL owner for any length of time whatsoever, this shouldn’t be that surprising. He was a vindictive little man when he owned Washington’s football team, refusing to comply with public requests to change the name, violating all kinds of league rules both written and unwritten (he and the Cowboys broke ranks and spent like madmen during the uncapped year of 2010 and suffered punishment as a result) and also created an incredibly hostile and inappropriate work environment that the league fined him for prior to the sale … and during the sale itself!
That sale, by the way, almost never happened. The league essentially forced Snyder’s hand and, according to the report from ESPN, Snyder did everything he possibly could to prevent the sale from happening.
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When I say everything, I mean everything. Snyder, according to ESPN, discussed the possibility of announcing “that he had years earlier given up alcohol, and to say that much of his alleged misbehavior over the years that caused so much league and fellow owner angst happened while he was drunk.”
Snyder reportedly targeted $6 billion as the sale price for the Washington franchise, thinking no one would be willing to meet that price and he’d be able to keep the team. It took new majority owner Josh Harris finding 20 (!) partners to get up to Snyder’s selling price.
The deal came together anyway, of course, but when the deal was about to go through, Snyder reportedly refused to hand over his bank information to Harris so he could transfer the money. In case that’s not clear: Snyder was so petulant about the sale of the team he wouldn’t volunteer a set of numbers that would allow someone to send him SIX BILLION DOLLARS.
The aforementioned fine from the NFL — a whopping $60 million, dipping the net sale price below Snyder’s target of $6 billion — didn’t help matters.
“There’s no way I’m paying,” Snyder said privately, per the ESPN report.
Snyder, despite calls from people around the league, refused to let the sale process even though a rally to celebrate Harris’ new ownership was scheduled for the next day. So Snyder refused to turn over the keys to FedEx Field, saying “it would be trespassing if anyone goes there” because “it’s still mine!”
(Recommendation: say those lines in whatever voice you imagine an angry, petulant, Napoleonic billionaire would have and it’s kind of funny to hear out loud.)
Former Washington coach Joe Gibbs, who won multiple Super Bowls and routinely supported Snyder in the face of outrageous behavior, was apparently a critical piece to the sale, pleading with Snyder to sell the team for the good of the franchise and the good of the fans.
“We don’t get the Commanders if not for Joe Gibbs,” Tad Brown, a CEO for Harris’ business, said privately, according to ESPN.
So what is Snyder up to these days? He’s essentially gone dark by way of moving across the pond. Jerry Jones, who was extremely close to Snyder when the two were fellow owners, apparently “has not spoken” with the former Washington owner since he sold the team. That probably has something to do with Snyder threatening to (metaphorically) “blow up” colleagues if they forced him to sell by using what he claimed was dirt against fellow owners to prevent them from forcing the sale. Snyder, at the time, reportedly said “they can’t f–k with me.”
There are still a LOT of pending investigations and lawsuits surrounding his time with Washington, including a lawsuit filed by one of the former minority owners of the Washington team that alleges Bank of America conspired with the NFL and Snyder to force him to sell and that BOA extended a massive line of credit to Snyder through the team without approval from the proper parties.
Federal prosecutors have been investigating “deceptive business practices” by Snyder and the team during the time he owned the team, although it’s unclear if that investigation will continue or any indictments will occur.
According to ESPN, Snyder is attempting to “reinvent himself” by looking into the purchase of a Premiere League Team, although it sounds like he’s not that into the idea, because his dream, as a kid who grew up watching Washington, is simply to own the Commanders. And it was — rightfully! — taken away from him after years of running the franchise into the ground.
Read the full article here
