This will surely be the repellent that gets The Pariah out of Washington. The Washington Commanders has two new bidding groups, billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos and the Josh Harris/Michael Rales group, all willing to pay Dan Snyder $6B+ for the franchise.
I feel like I’m having Déjà vu writing this article.
Literally less than 24 hours ago, I was complaining about The Glazer Family taking so long to sell English Premier League club Manchester United to a group of investors, which ended up being down to The Glazers refusing to budge from their $6B price for the soccer/football team.
And, 24 hours later, I’m now writing about how Daniel Snyder is greedily holding onto his ownership stake in the Washington Commanders franchise as groups of investors are pouring $6B+ to oust him from power. When did these sports teams become so costly?
Okay, back to the topic at hand, this was the best news a Washington Commanders fan could have heard today. Not only are there a plethora of rich, wealthy, and successful billionaire/ownership groups coming in with billionaire of dollars to take over the Commanders, but they also are a few steps away from removing the single most problematic owners in all of North American professional sports.
Daniel Snyder, who has been the owners of the Commanders since 1999, is the sole reason why the Commanders went from being one of the premier football teams throughout the 70’s-90’s (5 Super Bowl appearances, 3 Super Bowl victories) to the literal laughingstock of the NFL in the 21st century (0 Super Bowl appearances, just 5 playoff appearances in 23 years).
Whether it’s making horrible draft choices (Josh Doctson in 2016, Rod Gardner in 2001), dreadful free agent signings (Deion Sanders in 2000, Albert Hainsworth in 2009, Bruce Smith in 2000), allowing the Commanders facilities, fields, and stadium to degrade, or just flat out criminal (allegedly) conduct that has enraptured the NFL world the last few seasons, Dan Snyder has plastered his chubby, greedy, and downright despicable face all over the Washington franchise to the despair of the DC fanbase.
Obviously, there are some awful owners in the history of North American sports (ex: Harold Ballard for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Charles Wang for the New York Islanders, James Dolan for the New York Knick, Rangers, Donald Sterling for the Los Angeles Clippers, Jeffrey Loria for the Miami Marlins, etc.), but Daniel Snyder has to be the worst active owner in North America today.
Literally everything this guy gets his hands own either fails, backfires in his face, turns into some slimy, corporate scam, or is a straight-up criminal. I say he’s The Pariah of the NFL, but its more accurate to call him The Pariah of North American professional sports.
Still, I’m not sure these bids by Apostolopoulos (who owns TGC) or the Josh Harris Michael Rales group (Harris co-founder Apollo Global Managment; Rales co-founded the Danaher Corporation) will be enough as they not only are not the two sole bidders (Jeff Bezos and Amazon are still lurking around), but this bidding war will also allow Snyder to jack up the price.
And, if there’s a dollar more to be made, you’d better believe Daniel Synder will get on his hands and knees and scrap every last cent this Commanders franchise is worth.
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