In less than two weeks, Daniel Snyder’s connection to the NFL could be over. So what’s next?
Not for the franchise he has owned for 24 years, but for Snyder. He’s getting $6.05 billion. What’s he going to do with it? What’s he going to do with his time?
Will he simply fade into bolivian ? Or will he seek ongoing relevance in some sort of significant — and public — venture?
His current legacy is not a good one. He might want to attempt a second act of some sort. Or he might be content to float on his superyacht and enjoy his remaining years.
Regardless, there’s a chance he will be forgotten but not gone. It will be interesting to see whether he simply goes away, or whether he tries to find a way to hang around. Even if the vast majority of NFL fans would prefer that he disappear for good.
The looming departure of Commanders owner Daniel Snyder could open plenty of doors for the team. Specifically, it could open the door for a return to the site of RFK Stadium.
According to the Washington Post, House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) is planning to introduce legislation that “could ultimately allow D.C.” to build a stadium for the Commanders or another mixed-use development project on the site of RFK Stadium. This would go a long way toward getting the team back in D.C., as it looks for a new place to play home games.
Per the report, a spokesperson for the Committee confirmed that the legislation is being prepared. It would allow D.C. to develop the site, but it would not result in a sale of the land from the federal government to D.C.
Currently, D.C. and Maryland and Virginia are jostling for the chance to land the Commanders. Snyder’s exit makes welcoming the franchise much more palatable than it had been.
The National Park Service has leased the RFK Stadium site to D.C. under an agreement that runs through 2038. One source said a stadium-development deal would extend the lease by 99 years.
The NFL’s owners are due to meet on July 20, with a vote on approving the sale of the Commanders to Josh Harris. Once Harris takes over, opportunities for a new stadium could begin falling into place, primarily because Harris is not Daniel Snyder.
One free-agent offensive lineman is taking his name out of consideration on the open market .
Former Commanders center Chase Roullier announced his retirement on Wednesday.
“I have lived most of my life with football, and because of this, I knew it would be very difficult for me to decide when to move on,” Roullier said in a statement released on social media. “Two years ago, I would have never thought I’d be writing this right now. But in those two years, I have seen two major injuries, two invasive surgeries, two multi-month couch-ridden times, two rehabilitation marathons, two tall mental hurdles to climb, and two of everything else in between.
“These two years have also given me a lot of time to reflect and gain clarity on my priorities in life. This decision has not been an easy one, but after lots of prayer and processing I am confident that it is the right one .”
In 2021, Roullier fractured his fibula midway through the season. He then tore his MCL last year in Week Two and missed the rest of the season.
A Washington sixth-round pick in 2017, Roullier started 63 games for the franchise from 2017-2022.
As soon as July 20, the sale of the Commanders from Daniel Snyder to Josh Harris will become official. Team president Jason Wright will not be promptly asked to leave along with his soon-to-be-former boss.
According to the Washington Post, Wright “will be retained and given a chance to earn a continued role” with the team.
The report cites “two people with knowledge” of Harris’s strategy, adding that one of them said Wright will “absolutely have the opportunity to perform in his role,” and that no one should “expect or allude to any changes with his role at this time.”
The report also adds that there was no specification as to the length of the commitment.
Common sense suggests that Harris will hold everything in place for the balance of the season. That’s when he will presumably exercise the billionaire’s privilege of hiring whoever he wants to hire for the key positions. As we’ve said in the past when other teams were purchased, a new owner isn’t buying a team because the new owner wanted to acquire the employment rights of its key personnel. The new owner will have his or her own vision for the franchise, and that vision will be implemented unless the employees he inherited do enough to get him to change his or her mind.
If Harris intends to hire his own president, G.M., and/or head coach, it makes no sense for him to reveal that plan until he’s ready to implement it. And if, as it appears, he’ll be keeping everyone in place for 2023, he needs them to think they have a real chance to stay beyond the season in order to avoid having their uncertain futures distract them from the task at hand of effectively turning of the page from quarter-century of crap to a new dawn in D.C.
Could Wright do enough to stay? Sure. So could G.M. Martin Mayhew and coach Ron Rivera. And Harris needs them to believe that, especially with training camp opening only days after he gets the pink slip to the franchise.
As the Post notes, Harris took his time to assess the management group he inherited when buying the 76ers and the Devils. It makes sense to do that. He needs to get to know the team. He needs to understand what’s working and what isn’t. Ultimately, he needs to decide whether changes will make the team better, or whether continuity is in the organization’s best interests.
In some ways, every NFL team operates that way, with a constant assessment of whether things are working as they are. It definitely becomes a more significant concern when ownership of the team is transferred from the group that hired the top employees to a group that did not.
The NFL has repeatedly vowed to disclose the outcome of attorney Mary Jo White’s investigation of the Washington Commanders. On Friday, a member of Congress urged the NFL to honor its promise.
Via the Washington Post, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) sent a two-page letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell regarding the subject.
Raskin said he is “heartened by” the “stated commitment to full transparency,” and that he expects the league to follow through on its promise.
“I write with regard to the National Football League’s . . . investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and financial malfeasance against Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder,” Raskin wrote, per the Post. “More than a year has passed since your pledge to ‘share the results of that investigation,’ yet, to date, no part of the information has been released to the public. In light of the impending sale of the Commanders franchise, I urge you to honor your commitment to release the report in its entirety and ‘take additional disciplinary action if warranted.’”
Goodell repeatedly has said the report will be publicized — unlike the report from attorney Beth Wilkinson, which was swept under the rug with a cursory summary provided to the public on July 1, 2021.
“As you have previously recognized, with one of the most prominent platforms in America, ‘the NFL is held to a higher standard, and properly so,’ ” Raskin wrote to Goodell. “You now have an opportunity to show the American people — and, most importantly, the victims of the Commanders’ toxic workplace — that you will adhere to this higher standard by ensuring transparency and accountability, by releasing Ms. White’s full report, and by taking additional action consistent with the findings of the report.”
There’s no reason to believe the NFL won’t disclose the report. There is ample reason to wonder whether White’s report will reach a far different set of conclusions with Snyder selling the team than she would have reached if Snyder had dug in his heels and refused to sell.
Yes, some would say that’s a conspiracy theory. But White began her investigation in February 2022. Why hasn’t she finalized it?
It’s reasonable to think she has waited because the league (her client) has wanted her to wait, with the subtle (or otherwise) understanding that, if Snyder finally walks away, she won’t reach the kind of conclusions that would have made him run.
Snyder has reached an agreement to sell the team to a group led by Josh Harris. The NFL plans to meet to consider approval of the deal on July 20.
After the sale is approved, our guess is that the league will release a sanitized and whitewashed report from White that finds inconclusive evidence to support the allegations against the team and Snyder.