Dan Snyder has been a thorn in the side of NFL owners for several years now, and that’s putting it politely. There has reportedly been consideration to even removing the embattled owner of the Washington Commanders. But that now appears to be a thing of the past with a sale of the team looking imminent.
Citing two sources that have direct knowledge of the NFL’s inner workings and the owners’ views, Mark Maske, Nicki Jhabvala and Liz Clarke of the Washington Post reported Friday night that NFL team owners are pausing any consideration of removing Snyder from ownership of the Commanders.
Ahead of the league’s three-day annual meetings in Phoenix, the owners are not expected to take any formal actions against Snyder. According to the Post, those meetings as it pertains to Synder and the potential sale of the Commanders are expected to be “uneventful.” The Post quotes a source saying the owners are “not going to move toward voting him out right now. This has to play out over some time. We have to see what happens.”
However, according to that piece, there still is a situation where there could be a vote on removing Snyder. That would be if Snyder demands indemnification to protect him from potential legal fallout around the various investigations and lawsuits against the team.
“The vote-out will happen if he insists on being indemnified,” a source with direct knowledge of the owners’ views told the Post. “If the deal [to sell the team] is just like Denver, that’s fine. But if he expects special treatment, that leads to trouble. The biggest thing that will lead to a vote is if he says, ‘Indemnify me.’ That’s the issue.”
It remains to be seen what ultimately happens with the sale of the Commanders. But the remaining 31 owners aren’t prepared to remove Snyder just yet.
