The sudden effort of Brian Davis to buy the Commanders raises multiple questions that have yet to be answered. Most significantly, does he personally have the ability to transfer $2.1 billion of his own money to acquire the minimum 30-percent equity required by league rules?
His lengthy interview with 106.7 The Fan did little to answer that question.
But the interview raised another very interesting question regarding what happens next, if Davis isn’t allowed to buy the team.
Near the end of the conversation, Davis was asked this: “Are you willing to say that . . . if they don’t accept your offer that you won’t sue the team? There’s some people that think that you’re doing this just so that when they turn you down, you can then sue the team or sue the league.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Davis said in response. “That’s ridiculous. The last thing I would want to do is hurt the team, hurt the league, or anyone else. What I’m trying to do is make a contribution. What I want them to do is accept the capital so we can do something bigger and together, something collaborative. And as I said, I’m trying to be connective tissue. I would never sue anyone. I never sued anyone in my life. I’ve been sued, but I never been sued anyone in my life. And what I’m trying to do is not get into anything negative. I like to uplift as I said the league, and I think there’s no better representative for Black ownership than me.”
So that sounds like a “no”. But will it be a “no” if he believes his offer wasn’t fairly considered? Will it be a “no” if Davis, or if someone backing him, is hoping to use this as a test case aimed at challenging the NFL’s rules regarding the buying and selling of teams?
It’s arguably an antitrust violation for 32 independent businesses to come together and impose a long list of rules and regulations regarding the sale of a team. The owner of a business should be able to sell it to whomever he or she chooses. Why should one person have to personally buy 30 percent of the equity? Why can’t more than $1.1 billion be borrowed? Why is international money not good enough? Why can’t it be transformed into a public company, with shares of real stock with real value, not the non-stock stock the Packers periodically sell?
The NFL’s current rules can’t be tested without a test case. Davis, or perhaps more accurately the people behind him, could be that test case.
Thus, regardless of the answer provided by Davis for now, it’s an angle worth keeping an eye on.
Especially if current owner Daniel Snyder, as one final act of defiance, would be inclined to support such an effort.
