NFL says Tanya Snyder, not Dan, will keep representing Commanders originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
When the NFL fined the Washington Commanders $10 million last July following an investigation into the franchise’s allegedly toxic workplace, it also stated that Tanya Snyder would be the one to oversee Washington’s standard operations as co-CEO.
Dan Snyder, her husband and the squad’s long-time majority owner, would “concentrate on a new stadium plan and other matters.”
On Tuesday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the structure the league laid out in its punishment of the organization has been in place ever since and will stay also that way until otherwise indicated.
“Dan Snyder has not been involved in day-to-day operations; don’t believe he’s been at the facility at all,” Goodell told reporters in a press conference at the NFL owner’s meetings in Palm Beach, Fla. “Tanya has represented the team as the CEO, both on a day-to-day basis but also here with the league. She represented the club here and that will continue for at least the foreseeable future.”
As for when Dan Snyder could return to regular duties, Goodell declined to give a specific timeline.
“Dan and I will talk about that at some point,” Goodell said.
Snyder was last seen by the local media at Washington’s rebranding ceremony on Feb. 2, when the team officially became the Commanders. His remarks at FedEx Field that day were his first at a microphone since the hiring of Ron Rivera, which occurred in January 2020.
That lack of public speaking hasn’t prevented his name from being involved in the news, however.
In a roundtable on Capitol Hill the day after the launch of the Commanders, ex-Washington employees described their time with the team as one filled with “unavoidable” harassment, with one former cheerleader/marketing and events coordinator levying a new allegation of sexual harassment toward Snyder.
After that roundtable, Snyder announced that he was hiring an independent legal group to look into Tiffani Johnston’s claims against him. Goodell, however, pushed back on the notion of a Snyder-hired outfit investigating the allegation, explaining on Feb. 9 during a Super Bowl-week press conference in Los Angles “that’s something [the NFL] would do.”
Goodell gave no update Tuesday on that investigation but has pledged that its findings will be released. The NFL hired prominent attorney Mary Jo White, the onetime chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to investigate the most recent allegations of misconduct.
In a separate back-and-forth on Tuesday, Goodell was asked for his take on the Commanders’ relationship with its fans and sponsors. The former appears to be fraught, judging by Washington finishing last in 2021 in terms of percentage of home tickets sold, while the latter took a recent hit when global beer company Anheuser-Busch InBev chose to pull out of its deal with the team.
“My understanding – early returns — is ticket sales are doing very well in Washington,” Goodell said. “They’re making a lot of progress and we’re very optimistic going into the season.”
“Ultimately, it’ll come down to the work that they need to do to connect with the fans, engage the fans and make sure that franchise continues to be successful,” Goodell added.
NBC Sports Washington’s JP Finlay reported last week that the loss of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s sponsorship will cost the Commanders “at least $4 million annually.” Finlay also wrote that “at least 20 non-football employees have left since the beginning of the year,” with one labeling the situation as “a mess.”
In response to Finlay’s report, a Washington spokesperson said that sponsorship revenues are on pace to outperform 2021 despite the loss of revenue from the Anheuser-Busch agreement. The same spokesperson also said that the Commanders have sold more new season tickets in the last three weeks than in the previous three years.