Over the weekend, A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports broke the news that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos hasn’t even placed a bid on the Washington Commanders.
JP Finlay of NBC Sports Washington followed Perez’s report, saying he’d heard the same and added more context to the report.
Snyder said the Snyder family had no interest in selling their franchise to Bezos. The source of Snyder’s frustration: Bezos owns The Washington Post, which has reported many of the stories concerning Snyder and Washington’s toxic workplace under his watch.
On Monday, Finlay reiterated his Twitter report from Sunday, where he said the Commanders’ sale “will be over soon.” How soon? Perhaps March, said Finlay, with the owners approving the deal later that month at the NFL owner’s meetings.
Finlay speculated a deal could be announced before then, especially since the new league year begins March 15. However, it doesn’t become official until the 31 other owners vote to approve.
That’s unclear, and while the NFL might not want any major news stories during its playoffs, an announcement could come as soon as March.
The league holds its annual meeting at the end of March, though the new league year opens at 4 p.m. on March 15. Ideally, a new owner could be installed prior to that date so Washington can hit the ground running during free agency.
Finlay again mentioned Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils owner Josh Harris as a name to watch.
The Washington D.C. native led a group that was prepared to pay $5 billion for the Denver Broncos last year. However, Harris chose not to enter a bidding war against the Walton-Penner group that eventually bought the Broncos.
Finlay also noted that Todd Boehly had removed himself from the bidding.
As for Bezos, you still shouldn’t count him out. Bezos not submitting a bid in the first round was strategic. He didn’t want to be bidding against himself because no one could offer the Snyder family what Bezos could. Bezos could still come in with the most significant offer, which would put Dan Snyder in an awkward position: Take the highest bid, or sell to someone else to keep Bezos away from the Commanders.
While Snyder loves money, he’d probably enjoy sticking it to Bezos even more.
