Owners ‘Counting Votes’ Toward Kicking Washington Commanders Owner Dan Snyder Out of NFL
NFL ownership is, largely, the world’s most exclusive fraternity. It’s almost impossible to get in, and it’s almost impossible get somebody out …
But Daniel Snyder may have just crossed the line. The NFL owners like to count their money. And now they are reportedly “counting votes” - toward the ouster of the Washington Commanders owner.
Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
Snyder finds himself embroiled in yet another scandal, but this one is about his owners/partners’ money. He is the subject of a Federal Trade Commission and Virginia attorney general investigation into potentially fraudulent bookkeeping - an alleged act that impacts the revenue.
And so …
"We are counting votes," one team owner told Jarrett Bell of USA Today, implying that the owners were considered an ouster of Snyder's ownership, which would require 24 votes to force a sale of the organization.
Snyder has owned the Washington franchise through 23 years, three name changes, and not enough wins. He is presently supposed to be in the midst of a “punishment” that supposedly reduces his role to “part-timer” while his wife Tanya oversees day-to-day operations, all a result of an independent investigation into the franchise’s toxic workplace culture.
If you believe that Mr. Snyder is somehow not involved, ask yourself why he was front-and-center at the franchise's re-christening.
You think he was just there so the "real owner'' Tanya could gift him a nifty "Commanders'' letterman's jacket?
The Beth Wilkerson’s 10-month investigation resulting in a $10 million fine? It accomplished nothing. Snyder’s reaction to the sex-harassment allegations recently levied against him by former team employee Tiffani Johnson before a congressional committee was to announced that there will be another investigation. And that he - Snyder - would oversee it.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell shut down that idea.
"We’ll do an investigation,'' Goodell said of the NFL. "I do not see any way a team can do its own investigation of itself. That’s something we would do and we would do with an outside expert that would help us come to the conclusion of what the facts were, what truly happened, so we can make the right decision from there.
"We’ll treat that seriously.''
But maybe not as seriously as this latest alleged crime is being taken.
Snyder already stands accused of an illicit charade and then a devious cover-up. But this supposed “vote” - reportedly requiring 24 of the other 31 owners to agree - isn’t a league decision. It’s a business partners’ decision.
