ASHBURN, Va. — Dan Snyder and his family now own and control 100% of the Washington Football Team organization.
When the league’s finance committee approved an arrangement requiring a special extension to the league-wide debt waiver, the financial structure of the transaction had to be approved by ownership. It was earlier this week.
Then the deal had to be formally approved by the actual ownership of the league.
The end result is that Dan Snyder, an owner currently under league investigation for his ownership tenure, is being rewarded with more power and leverage.
In our view, ultimately, Robert Rothman, Dwight Schar and Fred Smith (Snyder’s minority partners) only cared about one thing: getting out and doing it any way they could.
READ MORE: Five Reasons Why NFL Could Go Easy on Dan Snyder
The league was reportedly upset that the trio engaged in a public war filled with nasty accusations and lawsuits.
Now, the NFL has decided that rewarding an owner still under investigation (while bending the normal financial rules for debt) is more important, or the lesser of two evils, than having the three minority owners in a public and legal war with their their former friend and co-owner.
The NFL says the league’s investigation is separate and has no bearing on the ownership situation. But it’s hard to feel that is truthful in any realistic way.
Perhaps the NFL is trying to protect the rest of their ownership fraternity and has decided that is more important than being transparent. But no matter how we got here, we’re here: It’s Dan Snyder and his family – 100 percent.