"This is categorically false," said John Brownlee and Stuart Nash, partners at Holland & Knight. A Commanders spokesperson and outside lawyers denied that Snyder has hired or authorized private investigators to track another team's owner and league office executives, including Goodell. The Commanders declined to make team officials, including Dan Snyder and his wife, Tanya, available for interviews but issued a statement attributed to a group including team employees and law firms. Another source confirmed that Snyder has told a confidant that he has "a file" on Jones, the Dallas Cowboys owner who has served as Snyder's friend, mentor and longtime firewall of support. One owner was told by Snyder directly that he "has dirt on Jerry Jones," a team source told ESPN, though the nature of the information was unclear. It's also unclear how many owners are said to have been targeted, though sources say they believe it's at least six. But none of the owners or sources would reveal how they learned of Snyder's alleged effort to use private investigators. League sources say the NFL is aware that Snyder has claimed to be tracking owners. Multiple owners and league and team sources say they've been told that Snyder instructed his law firms to hire private investigators to look into other owners - and Goodell. Snowboard coach accused of sexual assaultĪccording to more than 30 owners, league and team executives, lawyers and current and former Commanders employees interviewed by ESPN, the fear of reprisal that Snyder has instilled in his franchise, poisoning it on the field and off, has expanded to some of his fellow owners."If not," Banks said in a statement last year, "the NFL and Roger Goodell must explain why they appear intent on protecting" the team and "Dan Snyder at all costs." Editor's Picks "Our clients and the public at large deserve transparency," said Lisa Banks, attorney for nearly a dozen former team employees and cheerleaders who publicly revealed the team's toxic culture in 2020 and are still calling for the NFL to make public its investigative report on Snyder. WHY IS DAN Snyder still an NFL team owner? And how has he managed to survive allegations of a toxic club culture, sexual harassment, accounting misdeeds and the bungling of a new stadium proposal that once seemed inevitable and is now met with hard resistance by the public and officials in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.? Those questions have bewildered fans, league and team executives and some fellow owners, and the lawyers for former Commanders employees who say they were victims of the team's culture of sexual harassment and abuse. AP Photo/Michael Ainsworth Backed into a corner Multiple owners and league and team sources say they've been told that Snyder instructed his law firms to hire private investigators to look into other owners, including longtime ally Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys. It would clean the slate for a storied team and a cherished fan base and reignite the pursuit for a desperately needed stadium.īut there would be a price. Many owners and top league executives tell ESPN they would like to see Snyder removed as owner. Something has to give, possibly as soon as the NFL league meetings in New York on Tuesday. "That's not true," one veteran owner says. "The NFL is a mafia," he recently told an associate. Snyder, now 57 years old, has told associates he will not lose his beloved franchise without a fight that would end with multiple casualties. Now that he's facing investigations on multiple fronts and running out of high-powered allies, he alludes more than ever to the dirty work. Senior team executives and confidants have heard him say it since he was considered merely one of the worst owners in sports. "They can't f- with me," he has said privately. This story was reported and written by ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wickersham and Tisha Thompson. Snyder recently told a close associate that he has gathered enough secrets to "blow up" several NFL owners, the league office and even commissioner Roger Goodell. And that in the zero-sum world of billionaires, this is how you survive. He never says exactly what he knows, only that in his 23 years as owner of the Washington Commanders, he knows a lot. Cradling a drink in one hand, he tells members of his inner circle about the dirt he has accumulated on fellow owners, coaches, executives, even his own employees - all the stuff he's learned from other sources, including private investigative firms. He paces in a hotel suite, or on his superyacht, or at River View, his $48 million Virginia estate. DAN SNYDER DOES this thing when he feels cornered, say those who know him well.
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