The drama around Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder is escalating to new levels.
A bombshell ESPN report on Thursday morning details how Snyder and his fellow owners are moving toward a showdown that could ultimately lead to his ouster. The story alleges that Snyder has been digging up dirt on his fellow owners, including allegedly hiring private investigators through his law firms, in a brazen attempt to keep control of his scandal-scarred franchise and has enough information to “blow up” several of them.
One owner told the website that Snyder told him he “has dirt on Jerry Jones,” his one-time mentor within the league.
“He’s backed into a corner,” one veteran owner said. “He’s behaving like a mad dog cornered.”
Snyder is facing multiple controversies. There was a lengthy investigation that has made its way to Congress which exposed a toxic workplace, with Snyder directly implicated to some of the accusations. Snyder was fined $10 million and handed over day-to-day control of the franchise to his wife, Tanya.
There is now a second investigation ongoing that is looking into similar claims, including allegations from 2009 that Snyder groped a former employee and asked for sex. That case previously ended with a $1.6 million settlement, but the accuser spoke to former US Attorney Mary Jo White for this new investigation.
A Commanders spokesperson called her claims “meritless.”
Snyder has also bungled the team’s attempt to get a new stadium in Virginia, a deal that was at the goal line before backlash came from former female employees testifying in front of Congress.
Seemingly in the middle of the situation sits Jones, the Cowboys owner who no longer can be counted on to have Snyder’s back after years of being his protector. According to the ESPN report, Snyder recently snapped at a confidant when asked about Jones’ lack of support.
“Jerry has his own problems.” Snyder supposedly said.
The Commanders called the accusations of blackmail on fellow owners or NFL commissioner Roger Goodell “utterly false.”
“This is categorically false,” said John Brownlee and Stuart Nash, partners at Holland & Knight, one of the firms that represent Synder. “He has no ‘dossiers’ compiled on any owners.”
The next phase of this battle could come Tuesday at the NFL meetings in New York. Goodell cannot force Snyder to sell the franchise that has become a laughingstock under his watch. And the commissioner has done little to push owners to force him out, despite some league staff being “furious” and “disgusted” at working on Snyder’s behalf.
The failed stadium deal could ultimately be Snyder’s undoing. Without public funds, it would be nearly impossible for Snyder to afford a stadium. There are fuzzy rules in place in terms of how much debt an owner can have, with ESPN saying owners are “often making up rules as they go.”
Fellow owners voted last year to lend Snyder $450 million to buy out his limited partners.
“The league’s only real tool is to starve him from the funds to build a stadium,” a team president told ESPN.
The owners then could use financial concerns to deny Snyder a waiver and ultimately force him to sell the franchise that is valued at $5.6 billion.
Unless, of course, they are worried about what Snyder could reveal about them.