First things first: let’s not overreach. So far we know very little about a possible new phase in the House Committee on Oversight and Reform investigation into the Washington Commanders. But we do know that the committee, which began its work investigating the commanders’ toxic workplace and widespread sexual harassment, is now reportedly investigating financial irregularities within the team’s operations.
The Washington Post was the first to report the widening of the committee’s investigation yesterday, and finally got the committee chair Carolyn Maloney to confirm that the committee has shifted its investigation beyond its original focus. That report was followed by one from Front Office Sports, citing sources who added a bit more color. According to the report, the committee is investigating allegations that the commanders engaged in some questionable accounting practices and may even have kept two books to paint a misleading picture of the team’s financial condition.
That’s all that’s been reported so far, and we’re a long way from any of it meaning anything. Investigating allegations of financial harassment is very different than finding evidence of financial harassment, and even if the committee finds that nefarious second book, would you be willing to bet any money on Dan Snyder’s suffering and the personal consequences it entailed?
But! If the congressional committee somehow uncovers a genuine financial scandal, it doesn’t necessarily have to result in Snyder being jailed or even losing his team to face real consequences. What would set a scandal like this apart from all the others that have sprung from the Commanders’ front office is not that he has the potential to finally be the one to stick with Snyder, but that he could be stuck with everyone else .
The league has been able to weather Snyder’s smoldering presence in its ranks because it was relatively easy to confine his stink to Washington. Snyder runs an organization that bolsters an old-boys club that sexually harasses every woman in sight, which certainly does some reputational damage to the NFL itself, but it’s not an existential threat. It’s easy enough for the League to build a wall around such a scandal by launching an investigation and then, say, making sure the investigation doesn’t turn up a single shred of documentary evidence before slapping Snyder on the hand . We had a look at it. Snyder was punished. Now let’s play football.
However, it is much harder to imagine the league office sweeping away a scandal with the repercussions it could have so easily. If Snyder really does mess up his accounts so badly that Congress can’t help but raise an eyebrow, how is anyone supposed to believe that every other owner in the league isn’t doing the exact same thing? Do you think Jerry Jones, who is currently embroiled in a paternity case that has been preceded by millions of dollars in hush money payments, is completely honest when it comes to reporting his finances? Do you think Jimmy Haslam, whose chain of truck stops scammed truckers out of millions by siphoning off discounts on fuel purchases, is on the same level? The league may try to write off a sexual harassment scandal as a result of some bad actors, but engaging in shady accounting practices is just one thing business people do, and NFL owners are nothing but business people.
NFL finances are a black box, but I’d still bet that anyone with two or more brain cells has already assumed that NFL owners and every other rich person in America isn’t being honest with their accounts. They can’t act on assumptions, though, so it might make sense if the committee actually finds hard evidence that Snyder ran two sentences. I’m not naive enough to think that such a revelation would get Snyder jailed, but it might finally reveal the truth about how business is done in the NFL. How will the next CBA negotiations go when the players’ association can hold up Snyder’s secret ledger and say we know you’re hiding the real money from us? How will it fare for the next owner who goes begging for a stadium subsidy and is thrown this investigation in his face again?
Maybe I’m wrong. Even if Snyder turns out to have committed major accounting tricks, perhaps nothing will change and business will continue as usual. But at least we’ll know a little more about how this all actually works, and even at this point we can rest assured that Roger Goodell probably feels like a real jerk for protecting Snyder for as long as he has . That’s worth something I guess.