Daniel Snyder got $6.05 billion for the Commanders. Make that $5.99 billion.
The league has announced that Snyder was fined $60 million as a result of the findings of Mary Jo White’s follow-up to the Beth Wilkinson investigation.
White’s investigation corroborated the complaints made against Snyder by former employee Tiffani Johnston. Specifically, White accepted Johnston’s claim that Snyder, “without Ms. Johnston’s consent, put his hand on her thigh under a restaurant table at a work-related dinner.” White also confirmed the allegation that “Snyder pushed [Johnston] towards the back seat of his car in an effort to have her join him after the dinner.”
The investigation also determined the team, under Snyder, underreported revenues in order to avoid its obligation to share a portion of the visiting-team gate with the league. Basically, White found that the Commanders stole money from their partners.
“The conduct substantiated in Ms. White’s findings has no place in the NFL,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said. “We strive for workplaces that are safe, respectful and professional. What Ms. Johnston experienced is inappropriate and contrary to the NFL’s values.”
The 22-page White report makes even more conspicuous the failure to have Wilkinson put even one page in writing. Wilkinson would have recommended in writing, if she had been asked for a written report, that Snyder be compelled to sell the team.
The biggest surprise from the report comes from the fact that, after months of resisting, Snyder agreed to be interviewed. “Ultimately, his interview, agreed to at the last minute, did not alter our substantive findings or the finding that he and the Club failed to cooperate with the Investigation,” White writes.
If Snyder hadn’t agreed to sell, would he have been forced to do so? Based on White’s findings, the only plausible answer is yes.