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 workforce 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 bad old 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 workforce. The man managed to make each unhealthy determination an proprietor might probably make as he alienated followers, put an atrocious product on the sector, went to the mat in favor of conserving the workforce’s racist nickname, was implicated in a sexual harassment scandal, defrauded followers, and remains to be locked in an ongoing authorized battle that may resolve whether or not he dedicated financial institution fraud.
Oh, he additionally had 200 ft of old-growth bushes faraway from nationwide parkland exterior 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 great 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 facet, and Snyder would STILL be thought to be one of many worst house owners of all time.
One of Snyder’s first soccer strikes after taking on the franchise was kicking out Charlie Casserly, a beloved common supervisor who introduced the workforce a Super 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 had been nicely previous their prime, serving extra as a bizarre advertising and marketing ploy than a sound soccer plan. Cerrato’s trio of huge signings, Jeff George, Deion Sanders and Bruce Allen took the workforce from a 10-6 workforce that gained a playoff sport, to 8-8.
In an effort to course right Snyder truly made an excellent transfer in hiring Marty Schottenheimer in 2001, who required Cerrato depart as a part of becoming a member of the workforce. Of course, this lasted the size of a hiccup, and Snyder fired Schottenheimer who was turning the workforce 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 report 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 below the purview of Bruce Allen, who rose to develop into a mediocre common supervisor. More importantly: He was Dan Snyder’s good friend, which has all the time been an important pre-requisite.
Snyder invested the vast majority of his time and vitality into combating to maintain the workforce’s racist nickname and being profitable, moderately than truly caring about whether or not the workforce gained 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 choices and we’re left with a really pungent bag of trash.
Where does Snyder rank among the many worst house owners of all time?
We want a scoring system to actually consider how unhealthy an proprietor will be. Allow me to introduce the CRAP This system ranks house owners on 4 key areas:
- Criminality: How a lot criminal activity an proprietor perpetrated
- Ruckus: Drama brought about exterior of the sport that harm the workforce
- Absurdity: Terrible private life that made followers hate the particular person as an proprietor
- Poverty: How unhealthy the product was on the sector/courtroom
Each of those are graded, with a prime rating in every space being a 25. This offers an proprietor a possible 100 CRAP grade to find out how unhealthy they’re. There are a whole lot of really horrible house owners, however listed here are among the worst and their corresponding CRAP scores.
Donald Sterling: Los Angeles Clippers (1979-2015)
Donald Sterling sucked past comprehension. For his near-four many years of possession the Clippers had been perennially one of many saddest groups within the NBA. It wasn’t simply the Clippers had 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 workforce.
Unfortunately 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 cherished to place himself as the great man, standing towards Arizona’s SB-1070 invoice, the strictest anti-immigration invoice within the nation. However, behind closed doorways he was a unique 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. Despite profitable a World Series and having middling success for a lot of his tenure, his complete time as proprietor of the Marlins was unrealized potential. He cherished enjoying a shell sport with salaries to push them down the road, doing his finest to subject a mediocre workforce for the least cash attainable.
This is extra about unrealized potential than anything. With competent possession the Marlins might have develop into a drive in MLB. Instead they bought Jeffrey Loria.
Criminality: 5
Ruckus: 17
Absurdity: 25
Poverty: 15
CRAP: 63
James Dolan: New York Knicks (1994-present)
It takes a whole lot of ability to supervise a sporting jewel and make it a multitude. The Knicks are perennially some of the disappointing groups in sports activities, and Dolan is a serious cause why. His lack of endurance to permit anybody the construct the group, paired along with his extremely skinny pores and skin has made him some of the reviled house owners in skilled sports activities.
Also 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 is really one of many worst house owners of all time. The pending courtroom case might up his criminality a bit of, however he simply sneaks in below the bar of Donald Sterling for being the worst proprietor in historical past.
Criminality: 20
Ruckus: 25
Absurdity: 25
Poverty: 25
CRAP: 95
Feel free to drop a hated proprietor within the feedback with your personal CRAP rating.