Dan Snyder Is No Longer an NFL Owner
Dan Snyder appearing in one of South Park’s 18th season episodes. (Photo Credit: South Park Studios)
Washington, D.C. (PSF) - So it has finally happened after many weird rumors and reported obstacles along the way. A day Washington football fans have been dreaming about for ages has finally come true: Dan Snyder is no longer the owner of the Washington Commanders franchise. But why exactly have Washington fans been looking forward to Dan Snyder selling the team for so long? Well, let’s take a look at some of the highlights (or perhaps lowlights in this case) of some of the epic failures Snyder dragged the franchise and their poor fans through in his 24 years of ownership.
Daniel Snyder became the owner of the Washington Redskins in 1999 following the death of previous owner Jack Kent Cooke. Snyder purchased the team for $800 million, which was the largest transaction in the history of sports at the time. Initially, the Snyder era did show some promise with a playoff win over the Detroit Lions in the Wild Card round after Snyder’s first season as owner of the team. That offseason, the team signed two legends in Deion Sanders and Bruce Smith in free agency and had just drafted future first ballot Hall of Famer Champ Bailey in the previous year’s draft. The team was competitive and the defense seemed stacked. However, the Redskins’ first playoff win in the Snyder era would also end up being their second to last. A monumental list of failures and controversies throughout his tenure as an NFL owner constantly plagued the franchise causing decades of agony for the once loyal and rambunctious fanbase.
First, Snyder had a history of micromanaging his coaches and generally treating them poorly. Norv Turner had been the head coach of the Redskins when Snyder took over as owner and he led the Redskins to a 10-6 record and the aforementioned playoff win in Snyder’s first season. However, after a 7-6 start the following year, Snyder would abruptly decide to fire Turner. According to Bleacher Report, Turner remains the only coach post-NFL merger to be fired midseason with a winning record. There was also an infamous incident involving Defensive Coordinator Mike Nolan during the 1999 season where Snyder was apparently unhappy with Nolan’s too plain and boring “vanilla” play calling. So Snyder decided to leave 31 different flavors of ice cream in Nolan’s office with a note that said: “This is how I want your play calling to be.” After a loss to Dallas that season, Snyder left five gallons of ice cream to melt in Nolan’s office. This odd and questionable at-best gesture would signify how much of an obsessive control freak Snyder would be throughout his time as owner. To make matters worse, Snyder would also fire Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer after just one season in 2001 despite him finishing with an 8-8 record that included an impressive mid-season turnaround where Washington finished their last 11 games 8-3 after starting 0-5. He made this move to hire hot coaching candidate Steve Spurrier from Florida, who would last just two seasons in Washington and went 12-20.
It quickly became clear that Snyder prioritized control and profits over the fans and those around him. He would seemingly try to squeeze every last penny out of the fans by charging fans $10 to watch offseason practice and training camp and even suing season ticket holders who tried to withdraw their season ticket membership during the recession of the late 2000’s. In 2009, Snyder once again created an unprecedented rule where fans were banned from bringing in signs or placards into the stadium during games. Although he will never outright admit it, he made this move due to fans becoming increasingly frustrated with Snyder as an owner and the lack of success coming from his decade-long tenure at that time. Ironically, this rule only made fans more angry and brought more mockery his way from sports fans and media. But clearly all Snyder cared about was not having to potentially read mean words on a sign from the fans. If they can’t say it, then their opinion does not exist, right?
In addition to all these mishaps, Snyder also repeatedly made poor decisions related to player personnel. One of the most infamously bad free agent signings in NFL history took place under Snyder’s watch when the Redskins’ front office decided to give defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth a historically massive seven year contract worth $100 million with $41 million fully guaranteed in the 2009 offseason. It would not be long into the 2009 regular season that fans and players figured out that Snyder had just wasted a boat load of money on a guy who showed almost no desire to be a great football player. Haynesworth repeatedly took plays off and gained a reputation as the laziest player in the NFL. All of this culminated into one embarrassing play against the Eagles where Haynesworth was pushed to the ground but refused to even try to get back up and rush the quarterback despite the play continuing to be live for several more seconds. Michael Vick and the Eagles would end up with a touchdown. The Redskins also had a notoriously bad 2006 free agent class where they brought in the likes of Adam Archuleta, Brandon Lloyd, Antwaan Randle El, Christian Fauria, and Andre Carter. Out of that bunch, Carter would be their only successful signing who lived up to his contract while the rest would offer almost no production and quickly flame out with the team.
To save the worst for last, Snyder’s ownership was chopped full of legal controversies that even further showcase his toxicity and lack of ethical awareness as an NFL owner. These issues came to light most notably when it was revealed in 2020 that over 40 women had come forward alleging repeated sexual harassment and discrimination within the workplace committed by Snyder himself and other male employees. Soon after this, Snyder was reported to have settled a sexual harassment claim with a woman who used to work with the team for the amount of $1.6 million because of an incident in 2009. An investigation into the Washington’s workplace culture that finished in July 2021 did indeed conclude that sexual harassment, bullying, and other unethical practices were often taking place. This led to a $10 million dollar fine for the team, which would end up paling in comparison to the $60 million that the NFL fined him after the announcement of his sale of the presently named Washington Commanders due to poor workplace conduct. After all the damage he had done, the least the NFL could do was hit his pockets on the way out the door.
In retrospect, Dan Snyder really should not have been an NFL owner for as long as he was. The outlook on his reign of terror on the Washington Redskins, Football Team, and Commanders at the expense of both his employees and the fans only gets worse the further people dig and is not something even any fan should wish on their team’s biggest rival. So long, Snyder.
