Asked last week the question of when Mary Jo White’s investigation of Commanders owner Daniel Snyder will be completed, our answer was simple: Whenever her client, the NFL, wants it.
The question of what the outcome of White’s investigation will be invites a far greater degree of cynicism. Some would say she will conclude whatever her client, the NFL, wants her to conclude.
The response to this is simple, and predictable. “She would never undermine years of professional accomplishments for a paycheck.” It’s one thing to say “up” when all evidence points “down,” however. In most cases, the facts fall squarely within the very wide range of things on which reasonable minds may differ. Facts can easily be interpreted one way or another, especially when the question comes down to perceived credibility. White can believe Snyder, or she can not believe him. I choose to believe that her ultimately belief will be shaped by what she believes her client wants her to believe.
Some owners believe she’ll fashion a report that allows the league to give Snyder a pass.
Albert Breer of SI.com recently wrote this: “There’s a fear among a certain corner of NFL owners that things are setting up for Commanders owner Daniel Snyder to come out of this mess in possession of his team. And here’s how they fear it’ll go down. The NFL’s investigator, Mary Jo White, will have inconclusive findings on the charge that Snyder was hiding ticket revenue, which will then allow the league to tie that to the fact that the workplace culture in Washington has improved and effectively move the goal posts, letting the Commanders’ owner off the hook.”
Again, it won’t be quite that simple. White will have to find that Tiffani Johnston’s story about her interaction with Snyder isn’t credible -- and that his denial of it is. But, still, White can (if she wants) reach any conclusion she chooses on issues of contested and disputed facts.
Breer says that the fear of the fix being in for Snyder flows from “an old school–new school split that seems to be emerging inside ownership ranks.” In one corner are the families that have owned franchises for decades. In the other are the go-go billionaires who made money in other lines of work and bought football franchises in an effort to add fame (or notoriety) to their immense wealth.
The league brushed the Beth Wilkinson investigation under the rug because, in my opinion, the owners didn’t want to set a precedent that could be used against one or more of the rest of them. With only one disgruntled employee, a chain of events could be set in motion that culminates in an independent investigator who searches for something/anything that could become the trigger for a forced sale.
As written here repeatedly and validated by the recent ESPN #longread, Snyder may have “dirt” that he would unleash if/when he’s forced out. Also, an expensive and nasty legal fight seems inevitable.
Regardless of how it plays out, this isn’t a neutral, objective judicial exercise to determine Snyder’s fate. The NFL has a plan; it always does. (Whether the plan is a good one or a bad one is subject to debate.) The White report will be a piece of that plan. They’ll get what they want from White, and then they’ll use it accordingly.
Put simply, we’ll know the league’s strategy for Snyder from the manner in which the White report is handled. When it is released. What it says. What it doesn’t say. It will be constructed either to spark a groundswell against Snyder or to brush it all under the rug, again.
Think back to the Wilkinson investigation. The league didn’t ask for a written report, because the league knew it would contain comments that would make it very difficult to not make a move to force Snyder out. The league waited for the perfect day to release the very vague and general findings, on the brink of a four-day, Fourth of July weekend. By the time everyone returned to work, the sports world had moved on.
Here, will the league want to move on, or will it want to move out Snyder? The best evidence will come from when White’s report is released, and what it says.
