“I assume we’re going to get into more and more discussion on that,” Irsay mentioned Tuesday. “It’s a difficult situation. I believe that there’s merit to remove him as owner of the [Commanders]. I think it’s something that we have to review. We have to look at all the evidence, and we have to be thorough in going forward. But I think it’s something that has to be given serious consideration to.”
Irsay spoke on the problem for almost quarter-hour earlier than a big group of reporters at a lodge at which the house owners had been holding a one-day quarterly assembly. There was no vote on Snyder’s possession taken Tuesday by the house owners. It would require a vote of a minimum of 24 of the opposite 31 house owners to take away Snyder. Tanya Snyder represented the Commanders on the assembly.
“That’s not what we stand for in the National Football League,” Irsay mentioned. “And I think owners have been painted incorrectly a lot of times by various people and under various situations. And that’s not what we’re about. … There’s just a lot of closeness in this league. And I don’t think, some of the things I’ve heard, it doesn’t represent us at all. And I want the American public and the world to know what we’re about as owners.”
The league and the house owners are awaiting the findings of an NFL-commissioned investigation of Snyder and the Commanders being performed by legal professional Mary Jo White.
“It is highly inappropriate, but not surprising, that Mr. Irsay opted to make statements publicly based on falsehoods in the media,” a Commanders spokesperson mentioned. “It is unfortunate that Mr. Irsay decided to go public with his statement today, while an investigation is in process, and the team has had no opportunity to formally respond to allegations. The Commanders have made remarkable progress over the past two years. We are confident that, when he has an opportunity to see the actual evidence in this case, Mr. Irsay will conclude that there is no reason for the Snyders to consider selling the franchise. And they won’t.”
As the assembly concluded Tuesday night, Snyder despatched a letter through e-mail to the opposite house owners, in line with an individual with information of the matter.
“While we are all fierce competitors on the field, we are a part of this organization because we love football, our teams and our fans,” Snyder wrote within the letter, a duplicate of which was obtained by The Washington Post and which was signed by solely him. “Having the privilege to own a franchise in America’s sport is something I know none of us take for granted. Falsehoods and lies being spread about any of our organizations hurts our League, our players and our fans, and we simply cannot let them go unchallenged.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell mentioned the house owners had been up to date on the progress of the White’s investigation throughout Tuesday’s assembly.
“It’s an ongoing investigation,” Goodell mentioned. “That’s what we talked about. … When Mary Jo White is done with her investigation, we still share that with the membership and share it publicly, as we committed to before. And I was very clear with [the owners that] there’s no reason for any speculation at this point in time or a discussion until we have the facts. And so that was my message to the ownership. And there was little or no discussion.”
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform is investigating the group’s office and will subject a last report within the coming weeks. The workplace of Karl A. Racine (D), D.C.’s legal professional common, has almost accomplished its personal investigation of the Commanders and Snyder and is planning to take additional motion within the case, in line with an individual conversant in the investigation.
Irsay turned the primary NFL proprietor to say publicly the house owners ought to think about eradicating Snyder.
“I believe it’s in the best interests of the National Football League that we look it squarely in the eye and deal with it,” Irsay mentioned. “I think America, the world, expects us to, as leaders.”
Goodell mentioned he was not stunned or dissatisfied by Irsay’s feedback.
“I just said and I said it to the membership: Speculation without facts is not a very positive thing to do,” Goodell mentioned at a news convention because the assembly concluded. “I think everyone deserves to have facts and to make sure those decisions are made with facts. And the membership will have that opportunity.”
Goodell declined to offer a timeline for the completion of White’s investigation.
Dallas Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones was adopted out of the foyer of the lodge by a crowd of reporters after Tuesday’s assembly ended. Jones declined to reply a lot of the questions requested of him pertaining to Snyder. When requested how different house owners really feel about Snyder, Jones mentioned, “I haven’t talked to them.”
Just exterior the lodge, New England Patriots proprietor Robert Kraft fielded related questions as he awaited his trip. “You’re going to have to ask them,” Kraft mentioned of his fellow house owners’ views of Snyder.
Multiple house owners instructed The Post final month that they consider severe consideration could also be given to trying to oust Snyder from the league’s possession ranks, both by convincing him to promote his franchise or by voting to take away him.
“He needs to sell,” a type of house owners mentioned then. “Some of us need to go to him and tell him that he needs to sell.”
If Snyder couldn’t be persuaded to take action willingly, NFL guidelines would require a vote of the house owners to power him to promote.
“I think there will be a movement,” the identical proprietor mentioned final month. “We need to get 24 votes.”
Asked Tuesday whether or not he believes 24 house owners would vote to take away Snyder, Irsay mentioned: “I think potentially there will be. But we’ll see.”
Irsay mentioned he might foresee a vote being taken on the annual league assembly in March. Before that, there’s a usually scheduled house owners assembly in December.
“I said it’s under consideration, serious consideration,” Irsay mentioned. “But I want to see the thorough investigation be put before us and see exactly what’s going on, including possible financial improprieties. I don’t know if that exists. But that’s another component to it that we have to see.”
The NFL launched White’s investigation after Tiffani Johnston, a former cheerleader and advertising supervisor for the group, mentioned at a congressional roundtable in February that Snyder harassed her at a group dinner, placing his hand on her thigh and urgent her towards his limo. Snyder denied the accusations, calling them “outright lies.”
In June, The Post reported particulars of an worker’s declare that Snyder sexually assaulted her throughout a flight on his personal aircraft in April 2009. Later that yr, the group agreed to pay the worker, whom it fired, $1.6 million in a confidential settlement. In a 2020 courtroom submitting, Snyder referred to as the girl’s claims “meritless.”
“It’s a regrettable situation,” Irsay mentioned. “It pains me. … The founders of this league taught me you have to protect the game and protect what we’re about. This isn’t what we’re about.”
Irsay dismissed hypothesis in a report published by ESPN that Snyder might have used personal investigators to collect information on Goodell and house owners to try to dissuade any try and take away him.
“I don’t know about that,” Irsay mentioned. “I could care less. You can investigate me until the cows come home. That’s not going to back me off, private investigators or any of that stuff. To me, I just shrug it off. It’s irrelevant to me. I don’t know about any of that stuff. I just focus on the issue [of] what’s happened in Washington. And, to me, it’s gravely concerning.”
Snyder wrote in Tuesday’s letter to the house owners that the ESPN report “contains false and malicious statements” concerning the group and his household. Snyder described the allegation that group president Jason Wright lacked the facility to make substantial change inside the group as “particularly shameful.” He denied hiring personal investigators to hunt damaging information about house owners and Goodell.
“That is patently false and intended to erode the trust and goodwill between owners that I take quite seriously,” Snyder wrote.
In April, the House committee detailed allegations of monetary improprieties by Snyder and the group in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission. Racine and Virginia’s Republican legal professional common, Jason S. Miyares, introduced they might examine. The group has denied committing any monetary improprieties.
Goodell mentioned there has “been no change” to Snyder’s possession standing. The league introduced in July 2021, following a earlier investigation by legal professional Beth Wilkinson, that the group had been fined $10 million and that Tanya Snyder, Daniel’s spouse and the franchise’s co-CEO, would assume management of the group’s day-to-day operations for an unspecified interval. His attorneys mentioned final week that Daniel Snyder is “no longer under any NFL restriction” associated to his involvement within the day-to-day operations of the franchise.