Ron Rivera Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

While the sale of the Washington Commanders is still pending, head coach Ron Rivera briefly said it had already happened in comments after the NFL Draft Saturday. There, he referred to Dan and Tanya Snyder as “former ownership” before correcting himself to “current ownership,” as per Grant Paulsen of The Fan 106.7:

As Paulsen notes there, that fits in with some recent comments from team president Jason Wright, including on The Pat McAfee Show this week. Here are Wright’s comments to McAfee, via Nicki Jhabvala of The Washington Post:

There’s a lot adding to the discussion that the Commanders sale will happen sooner rather than later. Back in March, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported that the Snyders had cleared their belongings out of the team facility, and Jhabvala and Mark Maske reported in the Post that the league’s other owners would not take formal action against the Snyders (in response to investigations of allegations of financial improprieties, sexual harassment, and a toxic workplace environment, including one from the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform), suggesting the league and owners would let the sale play out.

This month, the Snyders reached an agreement in principle to sell the team to a group led by Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Josh Harris. Rivera (seen at top in a February press conference) had plenty to say about the proposed sale then too, telling Jarrett Bell of USA Today it felt like “kind of a relief” and “It really seemed like a load was lifted, because everybody was on pins and needles for the last couple of months.” So while the sale still isn’t fully completed, it does seem to be getting closer. And in Rivera’s mind, at least for a moment, it seemed to be done.

[Pro Football Talk; photo from Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.