NFL owners will vote on the sale of the Washington Commanders from Daniel Snyder to Josh Harris for $6.05 billion Thursday. Sometime Thursday afternoon, the Commanders — after 24 years of Snyder — will have a new owner.
We remember some of Snyder’s follies on his last day as owner:
- Had become the owner in May 1999, and Charley Casserly was suddenly resigning as General Manager in July 1999. What GM resigns just as training camp is opening?
- In the offseason leading up to the 2000 season, he signed aging free agents Bruce Smith, Jeff George, Andre Reed, Deion Sanders, and Mark Carrier. He not only overpaid all of them but why would Snyder overpay Sanders so much when he had just been released by the Cowboys and was available in early June?
- Upon Sanders being released, suddenly, the Redskins released Brian Mitchell. They actually released Mitchell for MUCH, MUCH less than they gave Sanders? What were they thinking?
- Fired head coach Norv Turner with the team at 7-6 in the 2000 season and immediately hired Pepper Rodgers as VP of Football Operations? Snyder was ready to hire Rodgers, who had never coached in the NFL, but was persuaded that was not a wise step.
- Hired Marty Schottenheimer as head coach and Director of Football Operations, then fired him after the 8-8 2001 season, demanding that he again have power over football decisions and not Marty? Then hired Steve Spurrier the next day?
- Hired Steve Spurrier and brought back and rehired Vinny Cerrato as head of player personnel?
- Shocked all of us announcing he had hired Joe Gibbs to return to coach the Redskins in January of 2004?
- When Joe Gibbs retired after four seasons, Snyder hired Jim Zorn to be his offensive coordinator. Why would Snyder do this, not permitting a new head coach to select his own staff? Thus, he couldn’t find anyone to take the job, so he then hired Zorn to be his head coach in 2008, though Zorn had never been a coordinator in the NFL. What?
This only takes us up to 2008, and I am already tired of remembering all of this.
Welcome to Washington, Mr. Josh Harris.
We certainly welcome more competency in the ownership and leadership of the Washington NFL franchise than we have experienced since 1999.
You can follow Ivan Lambert on Twitter @IvanLambert18 and Commanders Wire @Washington_Wire