The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Latest on the Washington Commanders sale, with Ben Standig

Episode Date: April 18, 2023

A group led by Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils owner Josh Harris appears poised to win the bidding for the Washington Commanders. Beat reporter Ben Standig joins Robert Mays to cover where everything stands from all angles on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Ben on Twitter: @BenStandigSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubeThis episode is brought to you by Betterhelp. Visit betterhelp.com/mays to get 10% off your first month Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is The Athletic Football Show. Welcome to The Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today, it's our Washington Commander's writer at The Athletic and a man who has been extremely busy over the last week or so. It's Ben Standick. Ben, thank you very much for doing this, man. I wish it was only the last week I was busy.

But yes, I appreciate the time, Robert. We wanted to kind of take a step back from all of the draft coverage and really let this have its own moment within the field. feed and have an actual conversation about it because it's a huge moment. And this feels different than sales that have happened recently. Even something like the Carolina Panther sale, with Jerry Richardson that was kind of pushed forward because of his own actions and some of the controversy surrounding that, this is different because this is a multi-decade reign of terror that is now coming to an end. And I don't even say that as a joke. You know, my first thought

when I saw the news that the commanders had not been sold, but the process has kind of been kicked into high gear and probably go into a group led by Josh Harris, who owns the Sixers, was, man, good for people who love that franchise and good for people who love that fan base. Because for the last 25 years since 1999 when Dan Snyder owned the team, they were dead in the water. I think among all the examples in professional sports of what bad ownership can do to you having a real shot, an honest shot to compete year and year out, beyond all of the moral kind of quagmires that this organization had kind of stumbled into. This was the best example of how much ownership can hold you back.

And now we're potentially moving beyond that. And I have to imagine that there's kind of a sense of jubilation with people in the Washington, D.C. area that you're talking to spending time around and how they feel about this right now. Yeah, it is, it is fascinating. I mean, I think it is going to take some people time to, especially those who walked away from this. I have so many friends and family. You can't see it.

If you're listening, but behind me, Robert could say if there's a football and a glass case. When I was a fan of this team, I grew up here. That was from, I got that from my bar mitzvah.

That was like, or about that, it was from the team that lost the Super Bowl to the Raiders all signed an autograph. It's still there because it is a cherished memory

from my youth because this was the team that everybody in town cared about the most. And it resonated for many years. They were an example. You know, they were the most valuable franchise, like in all the sports, when Forbes would put out those lists. They were that team. They had a season ticket waiting list forever.

And now it has obviously all been completely reversed. Stands are empty. Like I said, so many people have bailed on the team. It is remarkable that this has happened, but there is this glimmer of hope. I think Dan Snyder, until he's truly away, I think, and until there's a new owner and a new face, what may be. Maybe Magic Johnson pops in to an initial press conference or two as one of the people in Josh Harris's group, then maybe some people will come out of their bunkers. But in general, yeah, I mean, it is an exciting time, especially Daniel Snyder is only 58 years old. I think people thought this could go on for a long, long time.

It wasn't really until- A pure spite, maybe, the fact that he would just hold on for dear life until somebody prided out of his hands. A hundred percent. I mean, I really don't think anybody. thought he was going to be selling anytime soon as of a year or two ago. But here we are. And I do think once this deal gets done, assuming it looks like it's heading in that direction, that, yeah, I've been wondering where people will celebrate in town since it's a wide area.

They're going into D.C. Into downtown D.C. Are they going out by where the practice facility is? I don't know, but it's got to be something. This is going to be akin to like a championship parade, I would have to assume. just people celebrating in the streets. I was in Chicago in 2016 when the Cubs won the World Series. I was in Wrigleyville and just kind of stumbling out into the street after that happened.

I have to imagine that there's going to be a diet version of that when the sale actually goes through. So you talk about it's kind of on the way to happening. Can you just kind of break down for people who aren't as familiar with the process, where things currently stand with the sale? Well, shockingly, because this is a Dan Snyder scenario, it's not straightforward. It's not going to be wrapped up in a tidy, neat way. There obviously there was a bidding process and evaluation process by certain groups. You know, Jeff Bezos was rumored to have been in the mix.

I don't really know if he was a strong contender as much as people thought. But in any event, two groups put up a bid, and it's the group with Josh Harris, who owns, as you mentioned, the 76ers, the New Jersey Devils, another billionaire who's from this area, Mitchell Rails, and then other minority partners like Magic Johnson. That's the group that has been looked like the frontrunner throughout. They are the ones who have now come to an agreement in principle with Dan Snyder, and they're going through the steps of the paperwork and what billionaires do when they're making these kinds of deals.

You're not familiar with that? Those are my typical financial dealings on a day-to-day basis. Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, look, your podcast is highly rated. I would imagine you are. So what's unusual is, and I was talking about this with our business writer, Dan Kaplan, is that typically these groups, they come to an agreement, they sign off, they send it to the league, then the finance committee goes through it and they have to, you know, evaluate all the potential new owners and things like that. What apparently is happening now is they have sent this agreement to the league. It is unsigned.

the agreement is not or the conversation is not exclusive meaning other people could still in theory come in and bid on this. There does not appear to be another truly viable group. There is a Canadian billionaire guy Steve Apostolopoulopolis. Sorry, it's a tough one of the sake. I honestly just hope that doesn't happen for your guys' sake. I guess the owner of the bullets has a long Greek name as well, right? It's not as bad. Leontas is not as bad as Apostolopouloplas.

But it doesn't feel like his bid is as as strong as the Harris group, so he's kind of been faded out, it feels. So it's unusual that they would send this to the league for a review before actually signing off and agreeing to it. There's a step or two in this agreement that may be a part of it, including Dan Snyder seeking indemnification from the league or from the new owner for any other issues that may come up, whether it's these lawsuits or investigations we're aware of or anything else. This is not something that, say, the Denver Broncos new owners asked for or David Tepper or Carolina. So these are why this is taking a bit.

It's an unusual path there. I think we're all hoping that we hear something in the next day or two or this week about this moving forward. That could be naive on my part to think it's that short of time. But I don't think Josh Harris is going to be waiting forever for this to get done. So that's kind of worthing stand. And now we wait for the two groups in the league to say, yeah, you're good, move forward. So what does that indemnification process look like in practice?

Practically, what does that actually mean? In general, it means that if something comes up that Dan Snyder is not being held liable, basically, for these actions, whether it's legal or financial. Now, there are... Is that real? Is that something that these two groups can actually agree upon, or are there outside parties like the league that have to sign off on that? And are they going to do that? So that's my question, even if the two groups that are involved with the sale, somehow sign an agreement that involves that indemnity, does that apply to other groups that are going to be involved in the process somehow?

Right. So from what we reported yesterday, and kudos to Dan Kaplan for beating the leader on this, is that with it, that there was an indemnification clause in this agreement that they have come to, which would suggest that Josh Harris is fine with some aspect of saying, fine, I'll take the heat, whatever that may be. Now, there are various investigations. still open. That was going to be my next question. How do those affect all of this? Right. And some of them are relative pocket change type items. I'm not just missing if they get something,

but relatively pocket change items for these people. The ones that get confusing for me, though, are the ones where, say, you know, if Dan Snyder specifically did something. So, for example, the Marry Joe White investigation, this has been going on for 14 months now. this is this was the investigation that was brought on because one of the former employees of the team accused Dan Snyder directly of harassment and sexual harassment towards her he's of course said no not the case and then that investigation has led to other questions about their financial practices and the financial practices part is spread out beyond Mary Joe White but in any event we're waiting on the Mary Joe White investigation to come due and Roger Goodell has said he will make that public if it's a direct act against Dan Snyder, if they're saying he's accused of something, I don't know how he gets

indemnified for that. Like, that can't be a Josh Harris issue. That was kind of my question. So that makes a lot of sense. Is it there are different elements of this from which he would potentially be protected and which he would potentially not be based on what those findings look like when the Mary Jo White investigation comes through? You would think so, right? Like in the state of Virginia, there's two different investigations. One is just a broad questioning of their finances. It's likely similar to to cases that came settled in D.C. and Maryland in which the organization withheld ticket deposits for many years. They were subsequently fine, but were, again, less than a million dollars combined in both cases. So that shouldn't be an issue for Harris. But then there is also the Eastern District of

Virginia is investigating this ESPN report from a couple of weeks ago about it, or ESPN reported this, that Snyder took out a $55 million line of credit while he still had three minority partners who he later bought out, but never told them that he did this, even though it needed their approval and so on. So the question about that and some other matters, again, I don't know that that, to me, logically goes to the new owner or is that on Dan Snyder? That's the part of this where, you know, we need a lawyer here to go through. But that's kind of some of the gist of what else is out there. Gosh, just behind every single door, there's like one more layer of just complication and nonsense.

And I don't mean to make light of it. It's just staggering when you think about the totality. of everything going on with this organization and everything that's going on for the past two and a half decades. So even with all these hoops to jump through, do you feel like this is going to happen sometime here in the next couple weeks or sometime in the immediate future? I do. Everything's been pointing in that direction. You know, Jason Wright, the team president. First of all, like, obviously, you know, people on the outside are probably aware to a degree that there's been just constant speculation about this sale.

in various ways. Who is the potential bidders? When's it getting done? Some people thought it was calling it was on the goal line a month ago, things like that. There's only, I would bet, a small handful of people who really know what's going on. And that would be Dan Snyder's like tight, tight knit group as well as, you know, whoever, you know, the new bidders and things like that. There's not many people that know. That said, like team president Jason Wright, going back to when Eric B. Enemy was hired in February, said that this is happening. that this sale is going to happen. And that he's continued to say that.

Others have as well. That's what gives me confidence that this will get done. Again, we'll get done. We'll be cleaned up fairly quickly and done in an orderly fashion. You know, that's the part that I don't know. And this indemnification aspect may be a tipping point one way or the other. But I do feel confident he's going to sell whether that's happening today, tomorrow, next week, next month.

That's the part that we're kind of waiting on. All right, so let's live in this reality where the sale goes through. If you're Josh Harris and you're this new ownership group, let's go through some of the priorities that you now have and the things that you have to fix when you take over this organization. What is the first line item there for you? Well, I think for me, it's the fan base. It has just been completely gutted and demoralized.

And even worse, like it's one thing, look, you know, you are unfortunately for you, a fan of a team that has not had a lot of success lately. but it still seems like the Bears fan base is energized and cares about the scene. The worst thing you can have is an apathetic fan base. And that's where this group has gone through the years. That's why you see when they play like the Eagles or the Cowboys, those fan bases show up and dominate the stadium at times. So I think he needs to reengage that.

I think I don't see Josh Harris being a Jerry Jones type where he's out there, you know, all the time talking. But in the beginning at least, I think it needs to just be presented as, hey, you can get emotionally reattached to this team. Josh Harris grew up in this area. Now, so did Dan Snyder, so that can't be considered definitively as a positive. But Josh Harris did grow up in this area. At least from that perspective, he knows what this can be.

And I think he needs to come out. And like I said, just show them, show everybody. He's not that guy. We're going to be a competent organization. Those days are behind us. And, you know, again, Magic Johnson is a tremendous ambassador. to go from, not that Magic Johnson is the main owner, but to go from Dan Snyder and that reclusive.

It's a cloud. It's just a cloud of like evil that hangs over everything all of the time. Whatever you think of Magic Johnson, like it's the exact opposite vibe. That meme where the two guys are sitting on the bus and one guy's looking at like the dark, cloudy thing next to him and the other guys looking at that sunny paradise on the left side. That's what it feels like with Dan Snyder and Magic Johnson. Yeah, 100%. So look, obviously the goal, you've got to get people back, you know, buying buying gear and buying tickets and going to games and all these kinds of things. And plus,

you know, also on the agenda item here is re-re-uping the stadium conversation. That was something that Dan Snyder, even when he was suspended, not suspended, told to stay away from the team, whatever, he was still allowed to work on that. And even within Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. It all eventually ran into the ground last year as all the negative, even more negative conversations about Snyder took place. This needs to get started again. It's going to be a tough conversation because there's no great answer, frankly. The preference by many is to put the stadium back in D.C. at the old RFK stadium site. But some parts of the D.C. government are in. Some or not, it's federal land, meaning they have to actually get it from Congress before they

can even do anything. It may not be big enough to put that with the mini city that all these owners want to do. That's the ideal choice. And then from there, you look at Maryland and Virginia as well. So I think that's like the big... Is the D.C. hang up? Is that based more on how it will be funded or is that more based on just the practical elements of having a physical stadium in that space? It's kind of both. I mean, we don't know exactly why obviously what Josh Harris if that's who's going to get the bid, what he's looking to do. Typically, though,

these groups are all now looking to do more than just put the stadium up. They also could move the practice facility. At a minimum, the current facility is going to have to get replaced or massively updated. So the space is going to be tight, but you have, like, the mayor of D.C. is all in on putting a stadium there.

The council, the city council, not so much the community around the state. stadium, they're kind of out of it now. It's probably about like a five, ten minute walk away from Capitol Hill just for some reference. A lot of those people are not interested. So that's going to be kind of the hangup. But again, this is the part where the day, like they have been working with a Dan Snyder tax on every front for so long. And perhaps a new face says, hey, okay, we will change our mind. Josh Harris gives them whatever the pitch is and says, you know, we've got your back. I mentioned this other partner, Mitchell Rails, another multi-billionaire from this area. He has been a huge player in the business community here for many years. He and his brother started a company that is like the biggest,

I'm not sure if it's the biggest in terms of like worth or the biggest in terms of employees or whatever it is. It's a huge deal in the area, the Dan DeHur Corporation. He clearly must have some ties to D.C. government as well. At least then it could be the normal conversation of who is paying for it. How much is being financed? How much is not? Is it on the stadium on the owners?

That's at least a normal deal. We'll see if we get war-worthy things stand on that front. But that's kind of the deal with D.C. Hearing your conversation with Rich Hoffman, who covers the Sixers for the Athletic on your podcast that you guys did last week, kind of talking about the Josh Harris experience, I believe he said that the potential private arena that they were going to build in Philadelphia downtown away from that sports complex was going to be privately funded.

So it seems like they have gone down the road or at least start to have ideas about what a privately funded arena would look like in Philly. So potentially they would be open to a privately funded stadium for the Washington football team if it does come to that. And then the other element of that conversation, I thought, was particularly telling is that, you know, Rich said, Josh Harris isn't involved in the day-to-day aspects of how the Sixers are run. And I think it would be hard to be.

You know, he owns a hockey team. He owns a soccer team in the Premier League. And he has all these different things he has to worry about. It can't really be his pet project to have his fingers. in the day-to-day workings of any one organization. So if he's going to be somebody who kind of puts the structures in place with this team that need to be in place for it to run smoothly, what does that look like for you? Is the front office going to look similar to the one it looks like right now?

What is the status of Ron Rivera? How do the football things and the actual elements of the organization potentially change with this ownership change coming in? This is always fascinating, right? When you have these owners, they all made their money somewhere else. Then they come into the sport and have to learn the inner workings of this thing and hire people accordingly to do this. He's not owned an NFL team. That said, he's been a minority partner with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

He looked into buying the Denver Broncos last year. And he is at least not a sports owner of virgin because of these other entities that he has. So he has some idea of what he's going to have to deal with. In terms of the current people involved, so that's Ron Rivera overseeing the entire football side. But I mean, look, even if Dan Snyder was still the owner, there would be questions about Rivera's job security, considering he's yet to have a winning season in three years here. He isn't just, he's like got one of these coach-centric deals. So he oversees the front office as well, or at least has final say on what they do. I would think at a minimum, he probably would have to win, make the playoffs and maybe even win a playoff game to feel comfortable at all about keeping the job, just based on how these things typically work.

Ron Rivera is a very respected guy around the league, but the record is what it is. And he's also, even if you factor in Carolina, in 12 seasons as a head coach, they've had a, he's had a losing, 500, a losing record nine times. So that says a lot. So I wouldn't feel too comfortable on that end, but we'll see how that goes. The Jason Wright side, as the president overseeing the business end, I think that one's a little more up in the air for me. Jason Wright came into a ridiculously tough spot as did Rivera,

but Wright came in as the house was already on fire. Yes, and he was the one with the host, and it was up to him to kind of take care of this thing, which was a no-win situation for anybody. Right, but he also came into this, didn't have experience having done this. They've had a lot of blunders, we'll say, on remembrances, celebrations, and each one flop,

it's been unsettling for some of the fans. So, you know, that could be something where Josh Harris, as you're saying, if he's not going to physically be here all the time, he may want his own people to be running the business of this place, independent of what Jason Wright has done or not done. So I do think there could be significant turnover, probably not immediately, certainly not on the football side, but down the line, yeah, I think there could be some significant changes.

It kind of feels a little bit, again, to the Jeff Fisher situation with the Rams, where he was somebody who had been a head coach before, it's kind of a steadier hand on the wheel as the team moved to Los Angeles. But when they got settled there and when it was time to kind of turn the page, they moved on from him. And obviously, they went to Sean McBay and the rest of history. It wouldn't surprise me to kind of see a similar pathway for Washington after Harris buys this team and what the coaching situation looks like, let's say, in 2024 or 2025. I wanted to ask you with kind of the moves or the lack of moves that they have made this offseason. It's been a very quiet offseason, essentially outside of the Durant Payne movement.

What's the biggest splash outside of pain that Washington made this spring? was it Cody Barton. I mean, that's kind of what we look. Jacoby percent. Yeah. So, but even Jacoby percent, that's a perfect example. Okay. So you bring in Jacoby percent.

I think it's one year, $8 million. They have been open about Sam Howell's opportunity to win that job. Do you feel like the stasis that the football, that the roster has found this spring? Do you think that's partially a product of some of this uncertainty about what the next steps of the organization are going to look like? Yeah. I think it has.

to be the case. I mean, there's been, so just to take as an example, let's take the Chase Young situation. He's got, they still have yet to pick up his fifth year option. They have until May 2nd to do it. Way back during Super Bowl week, Ron Rivera let people know, hey, it's not a done deal. We're going to look at this. We're going to contemplate whether we're picking this up. Okay. I mean, some people might think that's nuts because he was the number two pick of the draft, was the defensive rookie of the year. But since then, he's only had one and a half. Sacks in the 12 games he's played. He missed a bunch of games because of a significant knee injury, came back at the end of last year. If you pick up the fifth year option, it's $17.5 million, they've already paid a bunch of other linemen, et cetera. But Ron Rivera recently, when explaining kind of where they are, said he would like to wait until the new owner comes in or that situation gets settled to make a call on Chase Young.

Now, I don't know if he's already made a call and he wants the new owner to play the bad guy, or he really want, if it's going to push money, you know, if you're talking about money down the line, maybe he really does need to hear from somebody. So that, I think that's an example of where they're at. They really have been pretty quiet, as you said, throughout. Oddly enough, I don't think their roster has, like, massive holes. Put the quarterback issue aside, we can debate whether that's a proper move to go to the Sam Howl. But they don't have, they didn't need a ton of stuff, but they probably could have done a little bit more than what they have.

So, yeah, I think the ownership deal has put a hit on what they've been able to do here so far. They were an 8-8-1 football team last year. And it just kind of feels like that's where we are again. You know, Eric B. Enemy is the big change. You know, the fact that he's going to be the offensive coordinator. But most of the roster, like we said, has stayed the same. They've retained some guys. There haven't been many changes.

They literally have the most plug-and-play, steady hand on the wheel quarterback option available with which you goby percent. like that's exactly what he is. There aren't a lot of holes, but there just isn't a lot to get excited about. And I think that's kind of where the state of the football side of this currently lies. Well, and what's going to be so interesting, like obviously with the Josh Harris conversation, we're focusing on he's not Dan Snyder and just kind of go from there. That's enough, man. It is enough.

But in terms of what he might do in terms of setting up the organization on the football, and this is the guy that green lit the process. with the 76ers. I was a fan of the process. I know not everybody was, but I thought it was a brilliant attempt to manipulate the system that existed. NBA even changed the system later

to not allow teams to do that. He's also the guy that went out and hired when they got rid of Sam Hinkie, ultimately went out and got Darry to come in. Darry is the face of analytics in America, I would say. In sports, 100%. Sports, yeah. And that's a bold move.

even just, and also get, he got Doc Rivers, who was obviously won an NBA title and has been a really good coach for the last, you know, a couple decades. So he's not, he's been aggressive, he's been sharp, he's been willing to think outside the box. And I think that is potentially exciting. I'm not suggesting he will have the commander's tank. You can insert the joke that they've been doing that for the last 20 years anyway. But in terms of what he may look to do, I think it is an interesting moment whenever he would have take over to see. what's in his head about where this thing should go. Is Sam Hinky-like figure being in charge of the football side of the Washington organization

is about as far removed as you can be from Ron Rivera being the figurehead of the football side of your organization, wouldn't you say? Yeah. I mean, one of the reasons why supposedly David Tapper moved on from Rivera and Carolina was that Rivera's not necessarily an analytics guy. I believe Washington may only have one person in their analytics department right now. And, you know, you look around the lake, some places have, you know, better than me, but, you know, a 10 or so. I mean, I have a real deep stack.

So that, yeah, that has not been, I think they've, they've used it more over time here, but it's not, it's not a go-to move. It's not a natural inclination for Rivera. So, yes, I think that would be another thing that Harris might take issue with or want to have a conversation about how do we, you know, move forward with this. analytics is always a word that I think invokes a strong reaction from people. And I wouldn't even venture to say that there will be an analytics-centric choice, the GM, whoever oversees football for them. I think the choice will be intentional and I think they won't be afraid to make it a little extreme. Those are the decisions that they've made with other organizations.

So even if it's not quote-unquote an analytics guy that they bring in, I don't think they'll be afraid to zag a little bit and kind of push things into a new direction. I don't disagree with that. I think one thing that's going to be interesting, though, for Washington this year is the Eric Bienomi aspect that you mentioned. This is obviously his first big opportunity without Andy Reed. He has still not made it to the head coaching level. But is there a world in which, even if the new owner wants to move on from Rivera

for the things that we just said, well, what if Bianami gets Sam Hald of play at a pretty reasonable level? And the offense is not an issue as to why maybe they don't make the playoffs. What do you do then? Because Bienerami obviously has been a lightning-rived topic in the league now for several years. I don't know where he's out on analytics. But that could be an interesting aspect to this as well if he looks like he could be somebody.

That was always one of the downsides and the dangers of taking this job, is that the turnover and the changes potentially on the horizon could lead to a really short stint for Eric B. Enemy in that role and for that staff in general. And I think we could potentially be staring down that barrel. So, Ben, that's all I got for you. I really appreciate you giving us some clarity on this. I know it's a potentially naughty and a particularly naughty situation, even with sales, which are obviously going to be complicated every single time.

This one, as all things have been with the Dan Snyder era, is a slightly different beast. So really appreciate your perspective and for laying this stuff out for us. Robert, thanks for having me on. All right, guys, that's all we got. Thank you very much for popping by for what amounts to a little bonus episode here during our draft coverage. This will be out on Tuesday afternoon, early evening.

So if you have not, please go listen to the Edge Rusher show that I did with Nate and Deiote. a little bit earlier this morning. Really, really enjoyed that show. We talked about all the top guys in the draft. You can listen to that. We also chatted a little J-1-Hertz contract. On Wednesday, Prospects to Crows will be back with Dane, Lance, and Andy.

It's going to be our last one for the draft. We're talking about the cornerbacks in this draft class. And then we will be back, me, Nate, and Dane on Friday, chatting a little tight ends. Until then, really appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. the athletic football show.