From the moment Commanders owner Daniel Snyder announced that he was exploring the possibility of selling the team, some wondered whether it was a ruse, a ploy, an effort to buy time. To take the heat out of the proverbial hot kitchen.
Those who thought that may have been onto something.
Only one day after the Washington Post reported that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has hired an investment firm to explore a potential bid for the team, the New York Post has published an item suggesting that Snyder may not be selling the team at all.
It’s not the headline. But it’s the unmistakable conclusion of the new report claiming that the top bids to buy the team fell “far short” of a $6 billion cutoff, and that Bezos has been “benched” from bidding on the team by Snyder.
And the body of the article eventually finishes the thought, noting that Snyder may decide to keep the team, given that he didn’t get the offer he wants.
“He’s an ass and he may not want to give it up,” an unnamed source “closely watching the sale” told the New York Post.
Reports regarding bids for the team have been all over the place. Forbes reported in December that Snyder has gotten multiple bids “well north” of $7 billion. The Washington Post then reported that the initial statements of interest came in with a maximum bid of $6.3 billion. Now, the New York Post says the number fell “far short” of $6 billion.
And why wouldn’t Snyder want Bezos in the bidding, if Bezos would potentially give Snyder what he wants?
What Snyder may want is a pretext to not sell. What he may then provoke is a potential fight with his business partners over whether he should be ousted. Snyder may be willing to welcome that fight.
Caught in the middle of everything is a long-suffering fan base that simply wants Snyder out. Maybe it’s time for them to make their voices heard, loudly, in order to ensure that Snyder doesn’t do what the New York Post item suggests he might do.
And maybe it’s time for the league to tell Mary Jo White to finish up her investigation of Snyder and the team, which seems to have been placed in mothballs ever since Snyder said he planned to sell the team.