By Ben Sullivan
Commanders fans don’t need to be reminded how woeful an owner Dan Snyder has been.
But just in case you forgot, NBC Sports’ Peter King reminds us:
For the record, Snyder has been the worst owner in the NFL for the last quarter-century of NFL history.
The scandals are one thing, and they matter. But it’s how the scandals were handled and the besmirching of the team legacy and the endless badness that have turned off a top-five fanbase in NFL history, so that now a Washington fan simply will not care about pro football in the nation’s capital again until Snyder goes away.
Here is everything you need to know about the reign of Snyder in Washington versus the tenure of the previous owner, Jack Kent Cooke:
Fight for old D.C. From Anil Chandra: “I’m old enough to remember when Dan Snyder bought the team. Local boy buys childhood team. Great story. In the following draft he traded up and got the best two players—LaVar Arrington, Chris Samuels. It felt like this owner would get it. Well, 25 years later hope is back in the air. What’s the defining trait (in your opinion) of a good owner versus a bad one?”
Good owners must be patient, but also must understand when to take big swings, and most importantly, they must know what they don’t know. Snyder’s three damnable traits:
- He was horribly impatient, particularly early, with six coaches in his first 10 seasons running the franchise. His kneejerk firing of Marty Schottenheimer after going 8-8 in 2001 for the ill-fitting Steve Spurrier was the biggest dud.
- He always wanted to “win the offseason.” Snyder’s reward for winning the 2000 offseason – signing Bruce Smith and Deion Sanders – was finishing 8-8, third in the NFC East and out of the playoff money. Start of a trend.
- He always acted like the smartest guy in the room. Imperious is not a good way to be ever, but particularly before you’ve accomplished a single thing in your chosen business. Snyder chose football, stunk at running a team, but acted above it all at all times.
I haven’t even mentioned that he simply is not a good person. That counts for something too.
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