Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder, long the overseer of one of the professional sports most dysfunctional franchises, wants you to believe the NFL’s owners meetings are a hateful place. The rest of the league’s owners want you to know this is true. They all hate Dan Snyder.
That’s one of many reported revelations in the latest expose into Snyder’s disastrous run behind a once-successful NFL franchise. Thursday’s deep dive, an 8,100-word examination from ESPN reporters Seth Wickersham, Don Van Natta Jr. and Tisha Thompson, shines a brighter light on a man who has never earned a headline for doing something right.
Football fans are keenly aware of Snyder’s disastrous results on the field. Since taking ownership in 1999 Washington’s football team is 157-216-1, worse than all but five other teams in the league. His two playoff wins in that span are one less than the number of Super Bowls the team won between 1982 and 1991.
That’s merely the B-story to the awful management and hostility fomented inside his own offices. The Commanders have been excoriated for fostering a culture of sexual harassment and abuse, stolen money from season ticket holders and scammed the league’s revenue-sharing program.
ESPN’s report adds another layer to the latent awfulness that’s permeated Washington’s facilities and shows how the rot comes from the top down when it comes to the Commanders. As the league considers removing him as team owner — likely at a hefty cost — Snyder is reportedly considering waging war against the league and the owners sick of weathering the storms he brings upon himself and the NFL.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Wickersham, Van Natta and Thompson’s report.