Could Commanders Owner Daniel Snyder Get Kicked 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 …
As Daniel Snyder is, I bet, about to prove.
Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
On Super Bowl Sunday, Pro Football Talk reported that there is a sense that "the time has come" for Snyder to be forced to sell the team.
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?
But suddenly - and some would add, "finally'' - the 57-year-old Snyder finds himself getting paddled by the NFL.
The Beth Wilkerson’s 10-month investigation resulting in a $10 million fine? It accomplished nothing. And commissioner's Roger Goodell claim that a lid was kept on the investigation to protect the victims does not ring true.
More likely: The lid was sealed to protect the frat house.
How comfortable and accustomed to his throne is Snyder? His reaction to the heinous 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 - will oversee it.
Goodell suddenly - some would say "finally'' - stepped up, with a scathing Super Bowl Opening Night review of Snyder's gall.
"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.''
Treat Daniel Snyder's alleged misdeeds "seriously''? That would be a first.
The NFL being a "law-and-order'' body is a recent development, and it was forced upon it when somebody found that horrific Ray Rice video shoved into the back of a broom closet or whatever. But have you noticed: The NFL is "tough'' on its employees who run afoul of the law and the rules.
Meanwhile, investigations, allegations and rumors about the owners generally blur and then fade into the joyous noise of screaming fans on Sundays.
Snyder stands accused here of an illicit charade and then a devious cover-up. The NFL should probably do something about that, and would, if not for the fact that the frat boys protect their own, for "the good of The Shield,'' which makes the NFL partners with Snyder in the business of illicit charades and devious cover-ups.
