Tag: Daniel Snyder Owner

It’s deja vu for Commanders head coach Ron Rivera

Ron Rivera is familiar with what he’s facing in 2023.

It’s deja vu for Commanders head coach Ron Rivera.

He has no doubt, previously been down this familiar road. Rivera has raised eyebrows at times with his responses with the media during his time in Washington. However, he may actually be the right coach for this time in the Commanders transition to new ownership.

The Carolina Panthers were 2-14 for the 2010 season. Rivera was subsequently hired to replace John Fox. Rivera was not naive. He had been in the NFL long enough as a player and assistant coach to know Fox could certainly coach, having led the Panthers to 11 wins twice, 12 wins once and an NFC championship before losing the Super Bowl on a last-second Adam Vinatieri field goal.

Fast forward eight seasons to 2018. The Panthers had a new owner in David Tepper. In 2019, the Panthers struggling on their way to a 5-11 season, Tepper was ready for a change. He was ready to hire his own head coach.

Rivera came to Washington in 2020 and has coached the team to 7-9, 7-10 and 8-8-1 seasons. Longtime owner Daniel Snyder is on the way out, ready to sell. How long will the new owner want to stay with Ron Rivera?

It’s not an enviable position for Rivera. He must win big or will be shown the door. Many fans and some in the media will be unfair to Rivera regardless of what he does. If he does not trade the next two No. 1 draft choices and pay $35 million for Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, he doesn’t want to win badly enough and is, in their eyes, a buffoon.

On the other hand, perhaps the new owner will not want to take over a team with no cap room and no first-round choices in 2023 or 2024. In one sense, next year’s money and next year’s choices are actually not Rivera’s. They are the next owner’s property and right to do with as he chooses.

As teenagers never realize until later, it is one thing to order a meal for yourself. It’s quite another as the responsible adult to pay for all of the family’s meal with your own hard-earned money.

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Are efforts to sell the Washington Commanders not going well?

Not sure this is the news anyone wants to hear — if true.

News that absolutely no Washington Commanders fans want to hear. Kosman of the New York Post appeared on the “Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast Friday. Here are some of his top quotes. Here is the entire podcast.

“Dan Snyder has a $6 billion minimum price, and there are two suitors. Josh Harris, who owns the Philadelphia 76ers, and a mystery bidder… both are having a very hard time getting to $6 billion.”

“Both parties are scrambling for co-investors. Both might not believe, from what I understand, that the team is worth $6 billion.”

“If you think about it, the Denver Broncos were sold last year for $4.65 billion. Why should Washington be worth $6 billion when you probably also need to build a new stadium which will include some private financing.”

“There is a possibility Snyder sets us up for failure; he never wanted to sell anyway. He set a number that he didn’t think anyone would reach, and then he says two months from now, ‘I couldn’t find an adequate buyer; I am keeping the team.”

“They need co-investors who are willing to be minority partners and take significant interest because $3.5 billion is a lot of money.”

“For the last five years, Bezos has let it be known that he would like to buy an NFL team. Of course, the NFL would love Bezos. He is worth $100 billion-plus, loves football. He has made it clear he wanted one of two teams, either Washington or Seattle.”

“Bezos lifts every other NFL owners value; he is very dedicated to football, the NFL loves what Bezos (Amazon) is doing, Amazon is paying 100 billion dollars for Thursday night football, and he would probably be a very active owner who would help the NFL move toward streaming more broadcasts.”

“The NFL owner’s meetings are on March 26, and they will want a resolution by then. I believe I know ( I am very confident) the process is not going as well as Bank of America wants.”

“My gut (not knowledge) is when we get to late March; he will try to hold on. He will try to hold on to the team, and then we will see where this goes.”

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Roger Goodell quite succinct Wednesday when asked about the Commanders

Goodell was brief and direct regarding the Commanders.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was asked about the Washington Commanders a couple of times Wednesday during his Super Bowl week press conference.

Goodell was asked about the potential sale of the Commanders by longtime majority owner Daniel Snyder. Goodell was quite concise and succinct regarding the Commanders and Snyder today. In both questions, he replied in a “just the facts, ma’am” manner and moved right along.

Regarding the Mary Jo White investigation into the toxic workplace environment of the then-Washington Redskins, Goodell replied,

“Mary Jo White, as I have said many times to you, there is no timeline given to Mary Jo White,” he said. “She is authorized to work independently. There is no timeline for her to come to any conclusions. When she does that, she will let me know, and we will let the public know at that point in time.

“As far as the process, the Commanders are under a process that is their process; ultimately, if they (the Snyders) reach a conclusion and have someone join the ownership group or buy the team entirely, that’s something the ownership will look at.”

The prevailing theory amongst skeptics (of the NFL) is that the Mary Jo White investigation will not actually be brought to the light of the public eye. The thinking is that Snyder was told by fellow owners his time is done, the damage is done, and he must go.

Snyder suddenly did not come to Commanders games, did not attend the Sonny Jurgensen day, is said to be moving to the UK, has put his Potomac, Md. home up for sale for a mere $49 million, and is entertaining offers for the franchise.

Thus, it could be that once he sells the team, the Mary Jo White investigation will quietly fade away into the night, and thus the contents of the report will be kept from the public.

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Commanders most likely end the Daniel Snyder era with a win

Was Sunday the end of the Daniel Snyder era?

With the sale of the Washington Commanders said to have already begun its process, Sunday’s game marked a fitting end.

With the fans already hopeful of Snyder’s almost certain soon departure, the football team itself provided some encouragement as well with a resounding 26-6 win over NFC East rival Dallas.

Snyder began his very first season raising red flags when general manager Charley Casserley suddenly resigned. He continued disappointing fans throughout his era from 1999-2022.

He naively played general manager, signing aging veterans to grossly over-priced contracts, such as Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, Jeff George, Mark Carrier and Albert Haynesworth.

He fired Norv Turner during the 2000 season, fired Marty Schottenheimer after the 2001 season, and made Steve Spurrier the highest-paid coach in the NFL.

His best accomplishment as the owner was his being able to persuade Joe Gibbs to return to the Redskins. Gibbs did get the team to the playoffs in two of his four seasons. Yet, when Gibbs departed, Snyder couldn’t find quality coaches to come be his head coach because, for some never-to-be-understood reasons, he had already hired Jim Zorn to be his offensive coordinator, ending up promoting him to head coach. He even insisted in 2019 his football staff was to draft Dwayne Haskins in the first round.

The last time this franchise won a playoff game was the 2005 season under Joe Gibbs, a 17-10 win in Tampa. In Snyder’s entire ownership cycle, Washington won two playoff games.

There was the Robert Griffin trade when Snyder traded first-round selections that were 6th, 22nd and 2nd overall and a 39th overall choice to move up only four spots to draft a college running quarterback who proved unable to play in the pocket and whose career was virtually over after three seasons.

There was a toxic workplace environment during his ownership years; the historic Redskins name was dropped, a consumer-protection lawsuit was made against him, and allegations by a few female employees of inappropriate conduct.

RFK and Jack Kent Cook Stadium once contained full stadiums of rabid Burgundy and Gold fans. The official numbers are not yet closed for this 2022 season, but it’s reasonable to believe Washington may have the lowest home attendance in the NFL this season.

That’s inexcusable, NFL owners know it, and Snyder knows it. Thus he is pursuing selling. I wish Dan, Tanya and his children a life of quiet peace after the sale.

Yet, I do hope for a quick sale.

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Will Daniel Snyder sell the Commanders?

The man who broke the Snyder story Wednesday was a guest on the “Kevin Sheehan Show” Wednesday.

Washington Commanders fans are excited, thinking the day has arrived; Daniel Snyder is actually going to sell! Will he actually go through with it?

Mike Ozanian of Forbes broke the story that Daniel Snyder has hired Bank of America Securities to consider potential transactions. He was a guest Wednesday on the “Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.

Ozanian believes at this point all options really will be considered. Snyder might be ready to cash in and sell the entire franchise were he to receive a good offer from someone who can actually afford it.

Yet, Ozanian was clear from the outset that this newest development could mean only that if someone comes along and offers to buy ten percent of the franchise, the Snyders could use that cash back toward the team.

Why now, Sheehan inquired. Ozanian pointed to the rebranding to Commanders has resulted in their sponsorship revenue being up 20 percent. “It’s a good time if you own a team to raise some capital.”

Sheehan contested Ozanian on this, stating as long as Snyder is the majority owner of the franchise, the business arrow is not going to be pointing upward for long.

“The NFL (pause) we can’t look at it anymore as ticket money and TV money. What deals does it get you into in terms of technology? What deals does it enable you to be linked with in sports betting? ”

Sheehan accurately pointed to the Washington franchise being an exception because, “so much of this fan base is already gone and won’t come back until he is gone.” Sheehan did agree the demographics of the DMV market are very attractive.

Ozanian reminded listeners that NFL rules require that a managing partner who intends to buy the team for controlling interest has to put 30 percent down. Thus, there are not many out there right now who could do that.

Is there enough support among NFL owners to put out Snyder by vote? Ozanian also suggested that Snyder may be simply trying to stay out in front, ensuring for now there is not a vote among fellow NFL owners to force Snyder to sell.

Snyder owning land around both FedEx Field and the Ashburn facility, holds very attractive assets for a new owner. It’s also in a very high net worth of the country.

Ozanian warned that he does not see Snyder selling the entire team unless he were to receive an offer for upwards to $8B. For potential purchasers, Ozanian suggests looking on the Forbes 400 Rich list, who are billionaires.

On the field, the team has not won a playoff game since the 2005 season. The almost unanimous consensus of the fan base for a decade now is that Snyder must go.

LaVar Arrington roots for the Commanders, not Daniel Snyder

Former Washington linebacker LaVar Arrington is still a fan of the team — just not the owner.

LaVar Arrington still roots for Washington.

Arrington, the former Penn State All-American linebacker, was drafted in the first round by Washington in 2000 and played in burgundy and gold from the 2000-2005 seasons.

Arrington appeared this week on the “Dan Patrick Show” and was interviewed by Patrick.

Patrick asked Arrington, “As you are watching Green Bay and the Commanders, you played for Washington. Do you root for Washington?”

“I do,” replied Arrington. “I do root for the team. I root for the fan base. I love the city. I love the fans. I love the team. I just don’t like the owner.”

“That’s been clear for a really long time. In fact, if you go back into the annals, DP, I am probably the first one that was out there talking about how crazy the dude is and how he handles things with his business affairs. That was during a time when it wasn’t very pronounced. I got a lot of flack and blowback on it, as if I didn’t like the fans or like the city, but it was really the owner that I disliked, and still dislike by the way.”

“They asked me if I wanted to redo my contract to help the team. I said I would. I did it, there was a discrepancy in the contract and the rest kind of went from there.”

Patrick inquired regarding Snyder and the current NFL owners’ relationship in light of the recent Colts owner Jim Irsay’s comments.

“I don’t know where all of that stands, but good for business is having an owner of a franchise that understands how the community works and how sports work. At the barest minimum how to talk to and treat the people that work for you.”

As for his college career, he is being inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in December. He feels Charles Woodson is the best defensive college player ever and that he himself is one of the better college defensive players no one talks about much. He then added he feels combining both college and pro careers; he does not feel anyone accomplished more in their playing careers than Woodson.

Many Washington fans may not recall or have been aware that Arrington was the highest-graded Washington player (Approximate Value) three consecutive seasons 2001-2003. Arrington intercepted three passes in 2001 and led the NFL in forced fumbles in 2003 with six.

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Kevin Sheehan: ‘Snyder has to go!’

Sheehan gives reasons why he believes that Snyder must go.

“This can’t be about the Mary Jo White investigation.”

Kevin Sheehan has had enough of the Daniel Snyder drama and investigations.

Voicing his displeasure with Snyder and the NFL process, Sheehan on his Wednesday podcast was a great listen.

Sheehan declared Mary Jo White is investigating matters that are “purely he-said, she-said” and that Jason Friedman, former franchise business employee, “has lied under oath,” and that “it is possible that Mary Jo White may conclude nothing.”

The lifelong Washington (teams) sports fan then lit into why the NFL should rid themselves of Snyder. Here are some excerpts.

“Nothing that she finds is going to take away from the FACTS that it was a very toxic workplace culture as Beth Wilkinson concluded and Roger Goodell stated when they fined the team $10M and gave Snyder a quasi-suspension.”

“The importance of all of this, and the emphasis on this should be why a once-profitable, passionate, incredible NFL market of fans is now gone! And it is not coming back until he leaves, whether her investigation produces something or not.”

“The big picture is this market is gone, as an NFL market! It doesn’t exist anymore in terms of anything remotely resembling what it was. The league knows that. That is why they want him out. Every owner knows it; that’s why they want him out. A lot of the owners don’t like him personally, and there is a personal animus involved in this as well. Which by the way, you should separate.”

“Bottom line is, they can’t get this market back until he leaves. A new stadium is not going to do it. Mary Jo White’s investigation is not going to do it. Winning isn’t going to do it.”

“The name change was basically the death knell for a lot of people whether Snyder is here or not. I do understand a lot of people are never coming back. That was the final nail in the coffin.”

“If the league wants any part of resuscitating any part of this market, turning it (back) into a revenue generator, and having it be a market they can be proud of in the nation’s capital, he has to go.”

“He is a bad owner and incompetent owner. One of the worst in the history of professional sports. He has ruined what was once something very sacred and special to a major city, the nation’s capital.”

“It is an embarrassment to the league. It is an under-performer. But so were the New York Knicks for many years, and so were the Cardinals for years. It is very hard to run someone who wants to be here (NFL) for being incompetent… So I am still skeptical that this is going to lead to his ouster.”

“They need to convince him to sell. He can sell the team, and the owners need to pass the hat around and come up with an extra half billion dollars, and get him out…’Here, this is what we will do if you will leave.’ I don’t think he is going to. I think his heels are dug in.”

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