Like a lingering fart free of a tent, Dan Snyder’s rein of horror is over. The Washington Commanders’ sale is within the works, with the Josh Harris-led consortium poised to take over the crew and return normalcy to the franchise. Snyder shall be resigned to a footnote in historical past, recalled solely in conversations on the bar 20 years from now as followers keep in mind “the unhealthy previous days.”
Snyder’s possession of the Commanders will go down in legend as one of many worst eras within the historical past of any sports activities crew. The person managed to make each unhealthy choice an proprietor may presumably make as he alienated followers, put an atrocious product on the sphere, went to the mat in favor of conserving the crew’s racist nickname, was implicated in a sexual harassment scandal, defrauded followers, and continues to be locked in an ongoing authorized battle that can resolve whether or not he dedicated financial institution fraud.
Oh, he additionally had 200 toes of old-growth timber faraway from nationwide parkland outdoors his home to enhance the worth of his house. It’s comparatively small potatoes within the scheme of issues, however I wanted to level out that he hates the surroundings as nicely.
Now Snyder has been resigned to reminiscence we will lastly talk about the retrospective this man deserves: Is Dan Snyder the worst proprietor within the historical past of sports activities?
The case for Dan Snyder being the worst proprietor of all time
What’s left to say about this man? He sucks. It takes large effort to take a proud franchise and switch them right into a universally-reviled laughing inventory, however that’s exactly what he did. Let’s push all of the atrocious off-field shit we already know to the aspect, and Snyder would STILL be considered one of many worst homeowners of all time.
Certainly one of Snyder’s first soccer strikes after taking up the franchise was kicking out Charlie Casserly, a beloved common supervisor who introduced the crew a Tremendous Bowl in 1991. Snyder changed him with Vinny Cerrato, whose solely qualification was “I play golf with Dan Snyder.”
His daring imaginative and prescient for the franchise was hiring a bunch of previous gamers who have been nicely previous their prime, serving extra as a bizarre advertising and marketing ploy than a sound soccer plan. Cerrato’s trio of massive signings, Jeff George, Deion Sanders and Bruce Smith took the crew from a 10-6 crew that received a playoff sport, to 8-8.
In an effort to course appropriate Snyder really made transfer in hiring Marty Schottenheimer in 2001, who required Cerrato depart as a part of becoming a member of the crew. After all, this lasted the size of a hiccup, and Snyder fired Schottenheimer who was turning the crew round, as a result of the coach didn’t pledge absolute fealty to him. Snyder then employed Steve Spurrier, and re-hired Vinny Cerrato.
Schottenheimer went on 47-33 document with the Chargers. Spurrier went 12-20 earlier than being fired.
This started a legendary run of teaching failures. Joe Gibbs, Jim Zorn, Mike Shanahan, Jay Gruden — all of whom got here underneath the purview of Bruce Allen, who rose to turn into a mediocre common supervisor. Extra importantly: He was Dan Snyder’s buddy, which has at all times been an important pre-requisite.
Snyder invested nearly all of his time and power into combating to maintain the crew’s racist nickname and making a living, relatively than really caring about whether or not the crew received or not. This was a legendary cautionary story for unhealthy possession, and after we mix the atrocious lack of soccer success along with his suite of disgusting off-field selections and we’re left with a really smelly bag of trash.
The place does Snyder rank among the many worst homeowners of all time?
We’d like a scoring system to actually consider how unhealthy an proprietor could be. Enable me to introduce the CRAP This technique ranks homeowners on 4 key areas:
- Criminality: How a lot criminality an proprietor perpetrated
- Ruckus: Drama brought on outdoors of the sport that harm the crew
- Absurdity: Horrible private life that made followers hate the particular person as an proprietor
- Poverty: How unhealthy the product was on the sphere/court docket
Every of those are graded, with a prime rating in every space being a 25. This provides an proprietor a possible 100 CRAP grade to find out how unhealthy they’re. There are lots of actually horrible homeowners, however listed below are a few of the worst and their corresponding CRAP scores.
Donald Sterling: Los Angeles Clippers (1979-2015)
Donald Sterling sucked past comprehension. For his near-four a long time of possession the Clippers have been perennially one of many saddest groups within the NBA. It wasn’t simply the Clippers have been unhealthy, as a result of Sterling was a legendary racist.
In 2003 he was sued for making racist feedback about Black and Hispanic tenants in his properties. In 2006 he was sued for refusing to hire property to Black folks in Beverly Hills. In 2009 he was sued by Elgin Baylor for racial discrimination.
Sterling was given a lifetime ban by the NBA for his incomparable hurt to the sport and whined all the way in which out the door when he was pressured to promote the crew.
Sadly he’s nonetheless alive.
Criminality: 22
Ruckus: 25
Absurdity: 25
Poverty: 25
CRAP: 97
Robert Sarver: Phoenix Suns (2004-2023)
Publicly Sarver was a reasonably quiet proprietor for a lot of his tenure with the Suns till 2021. It was then that the depths of Sarver’s mysogny and racism got here to the forefront. This was a basic case of wolf in sheep’s clothes.
Publicly Sarver liked to place himself as the nice man, standing towards Arizona’s SB-1070 invoice, the strictest anti-immigration invoice within the nation. Nonetheless, behind closed doorways he was a special particular person, utilizing the n-word liberally, discriminating towards ladies, and interfering within the office.
Good riddance.
Criminality: 12
Ruckus: 22
Absurdity: 22
Poverty: 11
CRAP: 67
Jeffrey Loria: Florida/Miami Marlins (2002-2017)
Loria isn’t actually a prison, nor a horrible racist — however goodness was he a horrific proprietor. Regardless of successful a World Sequence and having middling success for a lot of his tenure, his total time as proprietor of the Marlins was unrealized potential. He liked taking part in a shell sport with salaries to push them down the road, doing his finest to subject a mediocre crew for the least cash doable.
That is extra about unrealized potential than the rest. With competent possession the Marlins may have turn into a power in MLB. As a substitute they acquired Jeffrey Loria.
Criminality: 5
Ruckus: 17
Absurdity: 25
Poverty: 15
CRAP: 63
James Dolan: New York Knicks (1994-present)
It takes lots of talent to supervise a sporting jewel and make it a large number. The Knicks are perennially one of the vital disappointing groups in sports activities, and Dolan is a serious purpose why. His lack of endurance to permit anybody the construct the group, paired along with his extremely skinny pores and skin has made him one of the vital reviled homeowners in skilled sports activities.
Additionally his music sucks.
Criminality: 0
Ruckus: 25
Absurdity: 25
Poverty: 20
CRAP: 70
Daniel Snyder: Washington Commanders (1999-2023)
What’s left to say about Dan Snyder? He’s actually one of many worst homeowners of all time. The pending court docket case may up his criminality slightly, however he simply sneaks in underneath the bar of Donald Sterling for being the worst proprietor in historical past.
Criminality: 20
Ruckus: 25
Absurdity: 25
Poverty: 25
CRAP: 95
Be happy to drop a hated proprietor within the feedback with your personal CRAP rating.