Colts' Jim Irsay on Dan Snyder: I believe there’s merit to remove him as Commanders owner
NEW YORK — The conversation about Dan Snyder has emerged from behind closed doors.
Because Tuesday afternoon in the vast hotel hallway of the NFL league meeting, Indianapolis Colts team owner Jim Irsay said it aloud.
“I believe,” Irsay said, “that there’s merit to remove him as owner of the [Commanders].”
Consider Snyder on notice.
Irsay — using Washington’s original team name — said the 32 NFL team owners “potentially” have the sufficient 24-vote number to remove Snyder from the league and force a sale. Irsay repeated twice that Snyder and the Commanders’ actions have been “gravely concerning” the past 20 years.
Washington’s allegedly toxic workplace falls below NFL standards, he said, adding “possible financial improprieties” must be investigated and fully discussed. Irsay said he supported the league’s diligence before any final vote, while imploring franchise owners “look it square in the eye.”
“I want to hold my final opinion until I see the whole report in thorough,” Irsay said. “But I have my concerns. At this point, I’m very concerned that he needs to be removed.
“At this point, there has to be serious consideration to be ready to move in that direction.”
A Commanders team spokesperson slammed Irsay’s comments and dismissed the notion that the Snyders would sell.
“It is highly inappropriate, but not surprising, that Mr. Irsay opted to make statements publicly based on falsehoods in the media,” the spokesperson said in a statement provided to Yahoo Sports. “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 spokesperson said the team has made “remarkable progress” transforming its workplace the past two years and is “confident” the “actual evidence” of the league investigation will convince Irsay that there is “no reason for the Snyders to consider selling the franchise.”
The statement ended with three decisive words about the Snyders’ willingness to sell: “And they won’t.”
Irsay was the only team owner to publicly call for action against Snyder. The Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones, New England Patriots’ Robert Kraft and New York Giants’ Robert Mara deflected questions asked Tuesday evening on their way out of the owners-only meeting.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he was “very clear” sending a message to team owners that “there’s no reason for there to be any speculation at this point in time or discussion until we have the facts.”
“It’s an ongoing investigation,” Goodell said. “There were no internal reports. We have not gotten into reports. We do not provide any because we do not have them. When Mary Jo White is done with her investigation, we will share that with the membership and share it publicly as we’ve committed to before.
“Speculation without facts is not a very positive thing to do. I think everyone deserves to have facts and to make sure those decisions are made with facts. And the membership will have that opportunity.”
Was Goodell surprised or disappointed that Irsay unleashed?
“No, how do you like that?” the commissioner quipped.
Jones said club owners “didn’t address” Snyder’s removal and he was “not going to get into any issues.”
“We’ve all agreed we wouldn’t comment,” Jones said, roughly 2.5 hours after Irsay’s remarks. “We just wouldn’t comment any comment at all. … I have no knowledge of anything that has got any basis to it. Period.”
Irsay, meanwhile, was insistent in more than 14 minutes of remarks to roughly two dozen reporters, including Yahoo Sports. He said team owners must not confuse uncomfortable conversations with difficult ones, asserting that the “founders of the NFL” taught him to protect league integrity.
Irsay’s father Robert bought the Colts in 1972. Jim Irsay became owner and CEO in 1997.
Snyder purchased the Washington franchise in 1999. An ESPN investigation published last week detailed league concerns about his tenure. Team owners said Snyder has hired private investigators to search his counterparts, ESPN reported. The assumption: Snyder could threaten to release this “dirt” if fellow franchise owners compel a removal or sale.
Snyder sent an email to fellow team owners addressing what he called “false” and “malicious” statements in ESPN’s investigation, according to a copy of the letter a team spokesperson provided to Yahoo Sports. The letter acknowledged allegations that Snyder hired private investigators.
“That is patently false and intended to erode trust and goodwill between owners that I take quite seriously,” Snyder said in the letter, which was dated Monday but sent on Tuesday, the spokesperson said. “I have never hired any private investigator to look into any owner or the Commissioner. I have never instructed or authorized my lawyers to hire any private investigator on my behalf for any such purpose.
“And I never would.”
No team owner has been forced to sell in the NFL, though former Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson was fined $2.75 million for sexual harassment and racist workplace misconduct before deciding to sell the team himself. The NBA banned for life former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who was recorded making racist comments and sold the team to Steve Ballmer in 2014. Major League Baseball suspended Cincinnati Reds team owner Marge Schott in 1996 for, among other things, pro-Hitler comments, and she sold her controlling interest in the team in 1999.
A timeline for a potential vote on Snyder’s ownership is unclear, with Irsay saying no vote was planned for Tuesday while adding a thorough investigation could prompt a discussion at the NFL’s spring ownership meeting in March.
He said he expects fellow owners will support a vote if they “believe it’s the right thing to do.”
“It’s in the interest of the National Football League and what we’re about and how we’re represented,” Irsay said. “As leaders in the world, quite frankly.”
Follow Yahoo Sports’ Jori Epstein on Twitter @JoriEpstein
