With the sale of the Washington Commanders said to have already begun its process, Sunday’s game marked a fitting end.
With the fans already hopeful of Snyder’s almost certain soon departure, the football team itself provided some encouragement as well with a resounding 26-6 win over NFC East rival Dallas.
Snyder began his very first season raising red flags when general manager Charley Casserley suddenly resigned. He continued disappointing fans throughout his era from 1999-2022.
He naively played general manager, signing aging veterans to grossly over-priced contracts, such as Deion Sanders, Bruce Smith, Jeff George, Mark Carrier and Albert Haynesworth.
He fired Norv Turner during the 2000 season, fired Marty Schottenheimer after the 2001 season, and made Steve Spurrier the highest-paid coach in the NFL.
His best accomplishment as the owner was his being able to persuade Joe Gibbs to return to the Redskins. Gibbs did get the team to the playoffs in two of his four seasons. Yet, when Gibbs departed, Snyder couldn’t find quality coaches to come be his head coach because, for some never-to-be-understood reasons, he had already hired Jim Zorn to be his offensive coordinator, ending up promoting him to head coach. He even insisted in 2019 his football staff was to draft Dwayne Haskins in the first round.
The last time this franchise won a playoff game was the 2005 season under Joe Gibbs, a 17-10 win in Tampa. In Snyder’s entire ownership cycle, Washington won two playoff games.
There was the Robert Griffin trade when Snyder traded first-round selections that were 6th, 22nd and 2nd overall and a 39th overall choice to move up only four spots to draft a college running quarterback who proved unable to play in the pocket and whose career was virtually over after three seasons.
There was a toxic workplace environment during his ownership years; the historic Redskins name was dropped, a consumer-protection lawsuit was made against him, and allegations by a few female employees of inappropriate conduct.
RFK and Jack Kent Cook Stadium once contained full stadiums of rabid Burgundy and Gold fans. The official numbers are not yet closed for this 2022 season, but it’s reasonable to believe Washington may have the lowest home attendance in the NFL this season.
That’s inexcusable, NFL owners know it, and Snyder knows it. Thus he is pursuing selling. I wish Dan, Tanya and his children a life of quiet peace after the sale.
Yet, I do hope for a quick sale.