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Dan Snyder & The Washington Commanders Allegedly Withheld Payments From The NFL
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Hey Friends,
The Washington Commanders and owner Dan Snyder can’t stay out of trouble.
Snyder paid a then-record $800 million for the Washington franchise and its stadium back in 1999. He was able to do this by selling his communications company for $2.1 billion, borrowing $300-plus million from a European bank, and assuming an additional $150-plus million of debt on the stadium.
It was a big financial commitment. But Snyder and the team have found themselves embroiled in controversy virtually every year since, and especially recently.
Sure, Dan Snyder has made some questionable personnel decisions. He has routinely meddled in the drafting process. He has fired adequate coaches and general managers just to hire less adequate coaches and general managers. He has released good players for pennies on the dollar, and he has signed mediocre players to massive contracts.
You guys remember Albert Haynesworth, right? Dan Snyder and the Washington Commanders (then-Redskins) signed him to a record-setting seven-year $100 million contract in 2009, despite coach Mike Shanahan making it abundantly clear to ownership that Haynesworth wasn’t a good fit for his system schematically.
Here’s how Albert Haynesworth broke it down in a “Letter to My Younger Self” for The Players Tribune back in 2015:
“People are going to be all over you for your contract, and you’re going to feel really frustrated. You’re going to do some dumb things. But what people aren’t going to see is Mike Shanahan calling you into his office and saying, “Albert, we just want you to eat up space. All we want you to do is grab the center and let the linebackers run free.”
You’re going to look at this famous NFL head coach in total disbelief and say, “You want to pay me $100 million to grab the center?” And he’s going to say, with a straight face, “Albert, if you have more than one sack this season, I’m going to be pissed.”
The last thing you’ll say before walking out of the office is, “Can’t you just pay someone $300,000 a year to do that?”
After just two seasons in Washington, Albert Haynesworth was traded to the Patriots for only a fifth-round pick. It’s probably one of the worst contracts in NFL history.
To some degree, that all comes with the territory — when someone owns a multi-billion-dollar asset, they typically want some level of control, especially when their ego reminds them that they have been ultra-successful in another business arena.
But the more concerning actions & allegations have been ethically-related.
In 2006, Dan Snyder ran radio advertisements telling fans they could “commemorate Sept. 11” by purchasing a “Pentagon Flag” hat for $24 from the official team store, and he sold bags of peanuts to fans at the stadium that were initially intended for distribution on Independence Air, an airline that went out of business the year prior.
Snyder acquired Washington’s two-most prominent sports radio stations in an attempt to control the narrative around the franchise, and he even sued ~125 season-ticket holders that were unable to pay during the 2008 recession, despite claiming that the team had a season ticket wait-list with more than 200,000 people on it.
Those actions are optically wrong, but they are also somewhat trivial compared to the recent drama surrounding Dan Snyder and the Washington franchise.
I think we all probably know about the NFL’s workplace misconduct investigation by now. The Washington Post published troubling reports last summer where 15 former employees claimed they were sexually harassed during their time with the club.
The NFL launched an investigation and reportedly spent a year interviewing more than 100 witnesses. But the outcome was pretty anti-climatic. For example, a written report was not made public—only an oral statement—and Washington was fined $10 million. Yet, team owner Dan Snyder was not suspended or subjected to substantial punishment.
Now, to be clear, it appears Snyder is attempting to clean up certain parts of the organization. Several people within the front office have been fired, hired, or changed roles, and some genuinely believe Washington is headed in the right direction.
But that doesn't mean allegations of past misconduct are going to stop.
For example, the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee sent a 20-page letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday that contained some pretty damning allegations against Dan Snyder and the Washington Commanders.
You can read the entire 20-page document here, but I’ll also try my best to summarize a few of the main allegations below:
The Commanders allegedly withheld ticket revenue from the NFL—the league does a 60/40 split of ticket revenue—and they tried to hide the additional funds by attaching them to non-NFL events (college football games, concerts, etc.).
The Commanders allegedly operated with two financial books — one that was underreported and shared with the NFL and another that included the correct revenue numbers and was shared with team owner Dan Snyder.
The Commanders allegedly retained up to $5 million in deposits from about 2,000 customers by purposely failing to refund season ticket holders.
These allegations of financial improprieties were made by Jason Friedman, a former employee that spent 24 years with the organization before being fired in October 2020.
And Washington denied these allegations when they first surfaced earlier this month:
"The team categorically denies any suggestion of financial impropriety of any kind at any time. We adhere to strict internal processes that are consistent with industry and accounting standards, are audited annually by a globally respected independent auditing firm, and are also subject to regular audits by the NFL. We continue to cooperate fully with the Committee's work."
My general take on this type of news is that we should allow the legal and investigative process to play out before making any definitive declarations.
A public narrative is forming that this could be the final straw required to remove Dan Snyder — he messed with other NFL owners’ money! I get that, and it’s probably fair to assume that they don’t like that. But logic tells me that we are still a long way away from getting this situation sorted out and cleaned up.
Sure, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell could *technically* propose the removal of Dan Snyder as a team owner. He would claim wrongful conduct and take it to the Executive Committee. However, it would still require 3/4 of the committee to vote “Yes,” and that’s highly unlikely (IMO) given the legal process that would follow.
That doesn’t mean it’s right, not valid, or that other NFL owners aren’t upset. I just think that this has been going on for nearly two decades, and Dan Snyder clearly has enough friends in the right places to make me wonder why it would stop now.
We’ll see what happens. But as always, I’ll make sure to keep you updated as things inevitably change. I hope everyone has a great day, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
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The Joe Pomp Show: New episode with Andrew Brandt is now live!
We discuss news across the NFL, including our opinion on Dan Snyder allegedly “cooking” the books in Washington, Buffalo’s $850 million in public funding for a new stadium, and Deshaun Watson’s record-setting, fully-guaranteed $230 million contract.
Listen, subscribe, share, and enjoy!
