Daniel Snyder can’t sell the Commanders soon enough.
In a week in which Snyder has been temporarily trumped as the league’s most embarrassing owner by his sudden arch-nemesis, Colts owner Jim Irsay, Snyder has reminded everyone that he put the “diss” in dysfunction with a shameful statement that attempts to use the shooting of Commanders running back Brian Robinson as a shield against external scrutiny.
Following a Wednesday announcement that D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine will be making a “major announcement” on Thursday, the Commanders issued a characteristically combative statement.
“Less than three months ago, a 23-year-old player on our team was shot multiple times, in broad daylight,” the Commanders said. “Despite the out-of-control violent crime in D.C., today the Washington Commanders learned for the first time on Twitter that the D.C. Attorney General will be holding a press conference to ‘make a major announcement’ related to the organization tomorrow.”
But why invoke the shooting of Brian Robinson? What does it prove? The crime against Robinson is irrelevant to any crimes that the Commanders may have committed.
Consider the ludicrous nature of that argument. Essentially, the Commanders are balking at potentially being investigated and prosecuted because one of the team’s employees, in a wholly unrelated incident, was shot in the same jurisdiction.
The statement from the team also included comments far more relevant to the issue at hand.
“The Commanders have fully cooperated with the AG’s investigation for nearly a year,” the Commanders said. “As recently as Monday, a lawyer for the team met with the AG who did not suggest at that time that he intended to take any actions and, in fact, revealed fundamental misunderstandings of the underlying facts. It is unfortunate that, in his final days in office, Mr. Racine appears more interested in making splashy headlines, based on offbeat legal theories, rather than doing the hard work of making the streets safe for our citizens, including bringing to justice the people who shot one of our players.”
Racine can do try to do both. He has responsibility for all potential criminal activity within the District of Columbia, whether street crime or white-collar infractions.
Here’s the deeper problem with the Commanders’ statement. Like many self-serving press releases, the two-paragraph attack on Racine is aimed at pandering to Snyder’s base of fans and supporters. The only problem with that approach is, well, he has neither fans nor supporters.
Thus, the far better approach at this point will be: (1) keep your head low; (2) keep your mouth shut; and (3) above all else, sell the team.