Photo by John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Dan Snyder doing Dan Snyder things.
The Washington Commanders saga is drawing closer to the finish line. Reports emerged over the weekend that owner Dan Snyder had cleared out much of his personal office at the team facility, foreshadowing a sale of the team might be imminent. Now new details have surfaced about just how colossally cheap Snyder is being on his way out the door.
Daron Payne, who was given a 4 year, $90M contract to stay with the team, as well as free agent signings Jacoby Brissett and Andrew Wylie had very curious clauses built into their contracts: That they wouldn’t receive the first payment of their signing bonuses until May 12, 2023. This is exceptionally bizarre, with the majority of players receiving first payments within a month, and a source who spoke to The Athletic believes it was designed to ensure a new team owner would be on the hook, not Snyder.
“Relative to their prior contract precedents, it would seem that they have intentionally delayed the first installment of their signing bonuses,” the former front-office employee said. “Very plausible that it’s related to the expected timeline of a sale. … I think the payout dates are fairly telling.”
This is significant for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it presumably gives us a timetable of when Snyder believes the team will be under ownership — early May — and secondly, it’s absolutely hilarious that a man on the verge of a multi-billion payday would nickel-and-dime this much over a few million dollars.
Snyder is known for questionable business dealings, so forcing players to wait for their money is par for the course. Snyder is currently under investigation by federal prosecutors, while the IRS are reportedly interested in a $55 million loan Snyder took out on the team without the knowledge of his former business partners. These partners were later bought out by Snyder for far under market value with the NFL’s help.
So, it’s absolutely within the realm of possibility that Snyder would hold out on players getting paid to keep his pocket full for a little longer, sticking a new owner with the bill.
Those waiting for Snyder to finally be out of the NFL might get their wish as soon as next week. The yearly NFL owners meetings begin on March 26, with this being seen as the most likely time a sale could be finalized and voted on. At this point it’s unclear who might be in the running to buy the Commanders, but presumably Snyder could present the sale proposal at the meetings and have new owners voted on immediately, which would assuredly be approved due to the league’s general dislike of Snyder.
Then all that needs to happen is for the keys to be turned over, new owners introduced, and those free agents to finally get paid.
