At a time when many reports are surfacing regarding the apparent, or at least potential, reluctance of Commanders owner Daniel Snyder to sell the team, a Friday night report from A.J. Perez of FrontOfficeSports.com prompted a strongly-worded response from the team.
Perez reported that the sale “remained in a stalemate this week,” and that the delay arises from “multiple factors” — with the biggest impediment being Snyder’s reluctance to sell the team to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
“Front Office Sports tonight posted a blatantly false report regarding the ongoing process involving a potential Commanders transaction,” the team said in a statement distributed by email at 10:31 p.m. ET. “The team will continue its efforts to protect the confidentiality and integrity of its process. Upon the conclusion of the process, the position of the Commanders will be announced by the team. Transactions of this nature are highly confidential, and few people are involved in the inner workings. As such, anonymously sourced stories purporting to be factual should not be believed.”
The Commanders have every right to issue any statements they choose. But it seems odd that no late-night statements were issued last weekend, when multiple reports regarding Bezos being banned from buying the team first surfaced.
It’s been a tumultuous week for the Commanders and Snyder, to say the least. From the Washington Post reporting that Snyder wants indemnity from the league and its other owners to ESPN.com reporting that a federal criminal investigation has focused on whether proper approvals were secured for a $55 million line of credit, it feels once again as if the overall situation is approaching critical mass.
Then again, it has felt that way in the past. But nothing has ultimately changed. With the annual league meetings less than a month away, it’s hard not to think that Snyder eventually will be given an option by the league at large — sell the team voluntarily or risk being forced out.