Apologies, Eagles. Following a recent ESPN report, the Commanders might have the nation’s support when the two teams kick off in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game (3 p.m. ET, FOX).
On Saturday, ESPN’s Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. published an excellent profile into the mindset of former Commanders owner Dan Snyder, who sold the team to an ownership group led by Josh Harris in July 2023, considering Washington’s remarkable success. The franchise is one win away from playing in the Super Bowl for the first time since January 1992, seven years before Snyder purchased it in May 1999.
“He f—— hates it,” an associate of Snyder’s told a colleague, per the report, when sharing how the disgraced former team owner views the Commanders’ playoff run.
Schadenfreude has never felt so sweet. And it will be even sweeter if Washington wins on Sunday.
The ESPN report isn’t all roses for the Washington faithful who suffered through Snyder’s awful regime. Wickersham and Van Natta Jr. also detailed Snyder’s last-minute antics in an attempt to thwart the 2023 sale.
One dim-witted idea reportedly was for Snyder “to announce that he had years earlier given up alcohol, and to say that much of his alleged misbehavior … happened while he was drunk.”
During the early morning hours on the day of the sale, a defiant Snyder reportedly still possessed the stadium keys and yelled that anyone going there “would be trespassing” on his territory.
“It’s still mine!” Wickersham and Van Natta Jr. quote Snyder as saying.
Fortunately for the league and Commanders fans, Snyder ultimately relented, paving the way for the team’s incredible turnaround.
But as much as everyone associated with the NFL would love to wash their hands clean of Snyder, the ESPN report reveals he’s a specter still hovering over the league.
Snyder has multiple unresolved legal battles and an ongoing investigation into alleged “deceptive business practices” he engaged in while operating Commanders.
In November 2022, D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine filed a lawsuit against Snyder, the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell “for colluding to deceive District residents.”
While Snyder is still a headache for the NFL, the Commanders are living their best lives without him.
This season, Washington won 12 games for the first time since 1991, when the franchise last reached the NFC title game. It’s no coincidence that the Commanders have reversed their fortune so soon after Snyder sold the team.
As terrible of an owner as he was, Snyder is just as bad at breaking up. Instead of being happy for the Commanders, he’d rather they be as miserable as him.
