The clock is running out on Commanders owner Dan Snyder.
The Washington Commanders have already faced a ton of scrutiny over the past few years, but Dan Snyder would seem to always escape having to face real repercussions like having to sell off his team.
Things changed when the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia opened a criminal investigation with a focus on several areas of the team, according to ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr.
Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder would soon announce that he hired Bank of America to explore options for selling the team. According to a recent report from Ben Fischer of the Sports Business Journal, Snyder decided to finally come to this decision due to pressure from other NFL owners.
“Jim Irsay was the only one who said his piece in public, but other NFL owners have confronted Dan Snyder privately in recent weeks — and more have told Commissioner Roger Goodell that something must give, sources tell me. Wednesday’s shock announcement from the Snyders that they’d entertain offers for the team, those same sources said, came in light of that growing consensus that the end must come, one way or another,” Fischer reports.
Colts owner Jim Irsay became the first owner to publicly speak out against Snyder last month when he called for serious consideration to remove Washington’s Dan Snyder from NFL ownership.
“I believe there is merit to removing him as owner of the [Commanders],” Irsay said from the hotel lobby of the Conrad New York Downtown. “There’s consideration that he should be removed.”
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The league requires 24 of 32 owners to approve such a vote, which never has been done at the NFL level. Snyder must’ve thought those votes were there and jumped ahead of it and did it on his terms.
Snyder reportedly also feels a sense of hopelessness when it comes to so many investigations against him and the franchise.
“Since the summer, many owners have concluded that this scandal will simply never go away as long as Snyder is there — that it’s metastasized to the point of no return, and is starting to hurt other owners. If that’s true, his obligation as a partner is to find the best way out — e.g., a highly lucrative sale,” Fischer added.
