Name: Phillips: Is Dan Snyder paranoid, or are they actually out to get him? | Professional Sports | richmond.com
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Phillips: Is Dan Snyder paranoid, or are they actually out to get him? | Professional Sports | richmond.com

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Please subscribe to keep readingCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeASHBURNThree lawsuits over the past week shed light on a battle taking place behind the scenes of the Washington Football Team, with details that would be right at home in a soap opera.The immediate fight pits one billionaire against another, but the maneuvering also hints at a tussle over the long-term future of the NFL franchise, one of the most valuable in sports.Dan Snyder, who owns a majority stake of the team formerly named the Redskins, requested permission in federal court to subpoena former employee Mary-Ellen Blair, whom he accused of bribing current employees to release damaging information about Snyder.One exchange from the filing recounted a phone conversation Blair had recently with a current employee.“Blair told the employee that the employee could ‘probably make a lot of money’ for any information the employee had about [Snyder], pausing to see if the employee would bite on the hook and offer something up about [Snyder] in exchange for pay,” Snyder’s lawyers wrote.Snyder’s legal team includes Joe Tacopina, who has represented celebrity clients such as Alex Rodriguez, Meek Mill and Jay-Z in the past.“Mr. Snyder will not stand by idly as these criminals, for their own malicious reasons, seek to sully his good name through outrageous lies,” Tacopina wrote in an e-mail.A lawyer for Blair said the suit is an “obvious and inappropriate attempt to silence Ms. Blair.”The lawsuit implies that Blair is being subsidized by the Comstock Holding Companies, a real estate development group in Washington.And that’s where things get even more interesting.Comstock’s senior VP of marketing is Tracy Schar, daughter Dwight Schar, who founded NVR Inc., the parent company of Ryan Homes.Dwight Schar reportedly owns a 15% stake in the Washington NFL team, and along with the other two minority owners has put a collective 40% of the team up for sale in recent months.One of the other minority owners is FedEx CEO Frederick Smith, whose company was the first to publicly call for the Redskins to change their name.These are men who have been friends and partners with Snyder for years. Schar and Snyder shared executive producer credits on the 2008 Tom Cruise movie “Valkyrie.”Now, it appears Snyder’s partners want out, or even potentially want Snyder to sell the team — minority owners usually get first dibs on purchasing if that happens.Snyder has been away from the team facility for most of the summer, spending time on his $100 million megayacht. (Snyder’s wife Tanya is a cancer survivor, and would likely fall in a high-risk category if she contracted the coronavirus.)That absence has fueled the image of Snyder as a Howard Hughes-type character, growing paranoid about the people around him. But it’s not paranoia if it’s true, and there are multiple people who might have incentive to nudge Snyder toward selling.NFL owners have been displeased with the situation in Washington for the past few years, as declining attendance and TV ratings harms the league’s financial standing. Tensions flared in 2018 when former NFL executive Brian Lafemina was brought in to fix Washington’s business operations, then fired less than a year later.Snyder’s lawsuits this week could also be construed as a warning sign to the rest of the NFL, in case the league’s other owners are thinking about encouraging, or forcing, Snyder to sell.The court filing calls into question the character of Blair, accusing her of leaving Ashburn “with confidential information belonging to [Snyder] and/or the Team.”It also said that while still employed with the team, Blair told another employee that she had been in contact with the FBI about an employee who was involved in distributing pirated DVDs, and was later promoted into that employee’s position when they were arrested and fired.“This filing is an obvious and inappropriate attempt to silence Ms. Blair and others who may wish to communicate with legitimate news organizations about the culture of sexism, harassment and abuse that has existed at the highest levels of the Washington Football Team for decades,” Blair’s lawyer, Lisa Banks, said in a statement.The lawsuit is connected to another filed by Snyder this week in India, where a news organization, MEA Worldwide, had aggregated internet rumors in early July that an upcoming Washington Post exposé would connect Snyder to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. (The Post story alleged widespread sexual misconduct among team executives, but did not directly implicate Snyder, and made no mention of Epstein.)In that lawsuit, Snyder is requesting $750 million Indian Rupee (about $10 million USD) in compensation, which he says he will donate to charity.MEA Worldwide editor-in-chief Dean Andrew Williams wrote in an e-mail to the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the articles were based on pre-existing Twitter and Reddit posts and his group had no connection to those posts.He also categorically denied having been in contact with Blair.“We have never had any interactions with Ms. Blair or any entities or persons associated with her during the reporting of the articles in question, or prior to or since their publishing,” Williams wrote. “We would also like to strongly deny all claims that we have either received payment for any articles or ever been under external pressure to publish a story.”Whether Blair and MEA Worldwide are ultimately connected back to Schar and the team’s minority shareholders remains to be seen.But the notion of a feuding ownership group is one that’s unlikely to sit well at the NFL office, where the preferred way to handle controversies doesn’t involve court cases and newspaper articles.For Snyder, it’s a stunning turn of events, as people previously in his inner circle appear to be abandoning ship, in a developing story that promises an eventful season off the field.(804) 649-6546@michaelpRTD

Please subscribe to keep readingCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeCancel anytimeASHBURNThree lawsuits over the past week shed light on a battle taking place behind the scenes of the Washington Football Team, with details that would be right at home in a soap opera.The immediate fight pits one billionaire against another, but the maneuvering also hints at a tussle over the long-term future of the NFL...

Phillips: Is Dan Snyder paranoid, or are they actually out to get him? | Professional Sports | richmond.com

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