It sure feels like Wednesday is the big news day for the Washington Commanders. Last week, there was the report that owner Daniel Snyder had hired Bank of America to explore a potential team sale.
Shortly thereafter, the team confirmed the report.
Later that day, ESPN released a report that the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia had opened an investigation into the Commanders for alleged financial improprieties.
On Wednesday, Washington DC attorney general Karl Racine announced a press conference for Thursday where he would reveal a “major announcement” related to the Washington Commanders.
Later Wednesday evening, the Commanders responded via a team spokesperson:
Less than three months ago, a 23-year-old player on our team was shot multiple times, in broad daylight. Despite the out-of-control violent crime in DC, today the Washington Commanders learned for the first time on Twitter that the D.C. Attorney General will be holding a press conference to ‘make a major announcement’ related to the organization tomorrow.
The Commanders have fully cooperated with the AG’s investigation for nearly a year. As recently as Monday, a lawyer for the team met with the AG who did not suggest at that time that he intended to take any action and, in fact, revealed fundamental misunderstandings of the underlying facts. It is unfortunate that, in his final days in office, Mr. Racine appears more interested in making splashy headlines, based on offbeat legal theories, rather than doing the hard work of making the streets safe for our citizens, including bringing to justice the people who shot one of our players.
Unbelievably, in response to Racine’s announcement on Thursday, Washington used rookie running back Brian Robinson’s shooting from Aug. 28 in their statement. It would have been fine if Washington’s spokesperson had left the first paragraph out of its statement.
Just another black eye for the organization that just can’t seem to get out of its own way.
