Washington Commanders NFL owner Dan Snyder gets the last laugh
On NFL Sunday football, the Washington Commanders play Minnesota Vikings in the shadow of owner Dan Snyder's Bank of America rumors. Either way, Snyder wins.
One of the foundational moments in the modern history of sports social justice — in professional leagues stepping up and doing "the right thing" — came in 2014, when the new NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, held a news conference and declared Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling “banned for life” from the league for wildly racist comments. You can make an argument that Silver’s powerful statement fortified the NBA’s place as the “progressive” sports league and set in motion the age of athlete activism and empowerment that exploded in its wake. It felt like the good guys had won.
Silver’s powerful statement fortified the NBA’s place as the “progressive” sports league and set in motion the age of athlete activism.
But it is also worth remembering what Sterling’s banishment really meant. Because he was an owner of a team, rather than an employee or a player, Silver couldn’t really “ban” him any more than President Joe Biden could “ban” Elon Musk from owning Twitter. What he could do is put enough pressure on him that he felt compelled to sell his team, which, thanks in large to Sterling’s estranged wife, eventually happened. So Sterling — again, truly one of the most loathsome characters in the last 50 years of sports — had to suffer the ultimate punishment: He was forced to accept $2 billion of Steve Ballmer’s money for his team. This is how sports owners are really punished. This is as bad as it gets for them.
And these lessons feel newly relevant as the NFL’s Daniel Snyder car-crash continues in slow motion. Snyder, the longtime owner of the Washington Commanders (a name he once refused to change and only did so after years of unrelenting pressure), announced Wednesday that he and his wife, Tanya, had hired Bank of America to “consider potential transactions.” It’s a move that could signal a potential sale of the team. (Tanya Snyder, non-Washington fans may or may not remember, became the team’s co-CEO last year, a position she was promoted to after the team was hit with a cavalcade of sexual harassment lawsuits, including several specifically pointing at Snyder. Snyder has denied any wrongdoing.)
Washington Commanders under investigation for ‘toxic’ workplace environmentJune 22, 202201:46Snyder has fought off calls to sell the team throughout his reign in Washington as the city has watched a once-proud franchise flounder on the field and off, constantly embarrassing the league with scandal after scandal. (Here’s a chronicle of many of the allegations, but note that piece is 10 years old.) Now, the walls seem to finally be closing in, with other owners calling for him to sell the team and an investigation from the U.S. Attorney’s office involving financial improprieties (an attorney representing the Commanders told ESPN any such "allegations are simply untrue.") Snyder is not officially selling the team yet — it’s possible he has brought in Bank of America as a diversionary tactic — but even that is a sign that he is, at last, facing some serious headwinds.
Rating: 5