There’s a lot of smoke around Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder. Even in the absence of the confirmed existence of an actual fire, the smoke attracts the attention of its partners.
As reported by Jarrett Bell of USA todayan NFL owner said the group was “counting the votes” for Snyder.
It would take 24 votes to get rid of him. Of course, that would only be the beginning, not the end. Snyder would surely fight to not be forced to sell his company. Although the various members of Club Oliarch agree to the life rules of the league, the antitrust violation that would come from 24 or more business owners forcing another business owner to sell their business is hiding in plain sight.
Still, the other owners are heading towards their breaking point with Snyder.
It’s not new. We’ve repeatedly reported that Snyder is on thin ice. During Super Bowl week, we confirmed previous reports from 106.7 The Fan to DC that if the league asked attorney Beth Wilkinson for a written recommendation at the end of her 10-month investigation into the chronic workplace misconduct in Washington, she reportedly recommended that Snyder be forced to sell.
The league retained Mary Jo White, not Wilkinson, to investigate more recent misconduct allegations made against Snyder by former Washington employee Tiffani Johnston. We reported on the day of Super Bowl LVI that, “As a property-level source recently put it, Johnston’s allegations could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for the league, prompting Snyder’s partners to take measures to repel it.”
This was before the allegations of financial irregularities. These allegations included a claim by a longtime employee that money was being hidden from Snyder’s partners.
As we have said many times here and in particular on Live PFT, Snyder has had so many issues, controversies, and allegations that, regardless of the merits of each, at some point, the mere existence of the issues, controversies, and allegations becomes enough to justify pushing him away. At least one owner seems to agree with this position.
“There’s growing frustration about the situation in Washington and not about a problem, but about how much smoke there is,” an unnamed owner told Bell. “I think everyone is fed up.”
People who aren’t involved in NFL ownership are definitely fed up. The question is whether the owners are willing to hold Snyder to a standard that could potentially be applied to them in the future. That’s why he got a bye last year. This is why the league did not request a written report from Wilkinson. Had a report been created, Snyder’s continued ownership of the team would have become untenable. And all other current and future owners should have been concerned that claims made by disgruntled employees could trigger the same outcome for them.
Again, they weren’t protecting Snyder by sweeping the whole thing under the rug. They were protecting themselves.
It’s gotten to the point where maybe they’re not worried about it anymore. Where they may realize that none of them need worry about being held to the same level, because none of them would ever be embroiled in so much controversy.
Financial irregularities become the potential icing on the toxic cake. A source told us after the news broke that if Snyder did indeed pickpocket his partners, it would be his “death.”
Bell echoes that reality with this quote from an anonymous owner: “If it happened, I think it’s the nail in the coffin.”
Bell also reports that the owners “vehemently raised” concerns about the lack of a written report at league meetings in March. Again, Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league, while directly helping Snyder, were doing them a favor by not creating a roadmap for regime change. However, this lack of transparency dogged the league for months, culminating in a congressional investigation.
The irony is that the release of emails that took down Raiders coach Jon Gruden sparked a delayed effort to push the NFL and commanders toward more transparency. Without Gruden’s successful work, Congress probably never would have shown up.
Some believe Gruden’s emails were not released by the league office but by Snyder. Whoever did it, the universe of suspects is small. If it turns out that Snyder lit the fuse for the bomb that eventually explodes in his face, he’ll get what he deserves. Then again, chances are he deserves it anyway.
Add to that the fact that there’s evidence that he’s not actually bleeding a suspension when he’s supposed to, and it’s very hard to feel bad for Snyder as to which direction that might be going. to manage.
Fire or not, the smoke continues to rise. In 2007, Goodell reinforced the Personal Conduct Policy to justify punishing players who simply got into off-court entanglements, regardless of ultimate convictions or guilty pleas. If the league is inclined to apply the same standard to owners (and as made clear in playmakers it’s not), Snyder should be long gone by now.
Report: NFL owners ‘counting the votes’ for possible ouster of Daniel Snyder originally appeared on Pro Football Talk