With its Smithsonian museums, Capitol building and White House, Washington, D.C., offers loads of memorable sights, none more so than watching Dan Snyder walk to his motorcade to leave a Washington football game.
In the bowels of the rapidly decaying FedEx Field in Landover, Md., down the way from the locker rooms, is a space large enough to house a fleet of black SUVs, and limousines.
It looks like a car lot ready to transport the President of the United States, or some other dignitary.
Instead, this is the entourage of motor vehicles designated for the man who has owned the Washington NFL franchise since 1999.
After every game, Snyder is surrounded by a fleet of well dressed men as they quickly walk past the undesirables — i.e. fans, media, stadium employees, human beings — to a preposterously large motorcade to leave the team’s latest loss.
It’s a grandiose image created by money, ego, and enabled by sycophants who sold their soul in exchange for a healthy salary, and access to fun parties with Dom Perignon and lobster flown in from Maine.
Not sure how much longer such scenes will last, as the man who has become known as the worst owner in all of North American pro sports is staring at what could be his final days in the NFL.
On Thursday morning, ESPN published a report written by three veteran reporters that paint the bleakest of future scenarios for Snyder.
One that looks like it will ultimately feature the same conclusion as Donald Sterling in the NBA, and Marge Schott in Major League Baseball.
According to the report, in an effort to retain his position as an owner, Snyder has gone all-in on the crazy and hired private investigators to find dirt on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and his fellow NFL owners.
The report says that Snyder has a “file” on Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, and that one owner was told by Snyder “directly that he has dirt on Jerry Jones.”
So does everyone.
It’s called the internet.
Jerry Jones just celebrated his 80th birthday, and the best way to handle this little Napoleon is to dare him. If anyone would have died of embarrassment by now, Jerry would be in the ground years ago.
He doesn’t have skin. The man is made of smile, charm, and Kevlar.
The irony is whatever differences the two have had over the years, Jerry publicly always ran interference for Snyder, who for years has ducked the media, mostly because he wants no part of a hard question.
His is a personality not well suited for public speaking. Jerry entered this world on a stage, and his pacifier was a microphone.
When the pressure was coming on Snyder to change the name of the franchise, “Washington Redskins,” Jerry fiercely protected his fellow owner’s decision to hold firm on the name.
As the NFL’s most senior owner, he knows whatever dirt Snyder reveals will not stop him. No one barrels through mud better than Jerry.
A lot of people claim, “I don’t care what they think.” Few people actually mean it.
Jerry may care, but it’s never once stopped him.
The trait is both enviable, and almost inspiring. Almost.
As the NFL’s most senior owner, Jerry likely knows that when the United States government officials started to investigate claims into the office practices of the Washington football franchise it likely spelled the end of Snyder’s tenure.
As the NFL’s most senior owner, Jerry definitely knows that if the Washington Team Football (WTF) was a winner, the problems that trail Snyder like his fleet of fake friends to his motorcade would magically vanish.
Since Snyder bought the team in 1999, Washington has had six winning seasons, three 10-win records, 10 head coaches, two playoff wins, and a long list of embarrassing off-the-field incidents, some of which involved cheerleaders, frat’ boy front office behaviors, and a team that is poorly run.
Once one of the most distinguished franchises in the NFL for decades, Washington has evolved from being a joke, to irrelevant, and back to relevant for the type reasons that prompt a league to terminate an owner.
It takes a lot for a league to force an owner to sell a team, but that scenario looks inevitable.
Whatever dirt Snyder thinks he has on Jerry, Goodell, or anyone else in the league will do nothing other than potentially embarrass a group of men enabled by their wealth, and our collective acceptance that rich guys often act brazenly.
Jerry is 80, and has been through more publicly that would make most people move to a hut in Pakistan.
He’s going to be fine, and he knows it, while Dan Snyder will soon have no choice but to sell his team.
