It’s the eve of Daniel Snyder’s Washington Commanders coming to Lucas Oil Stadium to play the Indianapolis Colts owned by Jim Irsay.
Buy Commanders TicketsIrsay, two weeks ago, became the first NFL owner to speak out in favor of the NFL owners using their voting authority to reach a consensus vote for the purpose of potentially removing Snyder from the exclusive 32-member club.
Now, we learn that Friday night, Irsay kept the burner on, wanting the issue to be at the forefront of Sunday’s game. This time, Irsay spoke of the NFL owners needing to step up and make sure they are the ones running the league.
New: Jim Irsay says NFL team owners must take control of the process to determine Daniel Snyder's ownership status: "I’m into transparency and I’m into the owners running the league," with @NickiJhabvala…. https://t.co/yDarDNOdai
— MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) October 29, 2022
There is no question Snyder has not managed the football operations well. In his very first season, before the first game was played, general manager Charley Casserly learned what kind of owner Snyder was going to be. Casserly was suddenly gone.
Literally, it’s been all downhill since as he intervenes where he should not such as the NFL draft, and burns bridges with employees on the business side as well as the football side. The Beth Wilkinson investigation uncovered nothing short of a toxic workplace all under Snyder’s watch, yet, could he not muster the courage to accept responsibility?
Irsay hasn’t exactly been the Art Rooney of the NFL either. His father, Robert, was the Colts owner when Jim graduated from SMU in 1982. By 1984, was it wise that Jim was made vice president and general manager?
When Robert died, Jim became the NFL’s youngest owner at age 37. There have been questions, serious questions, about Irsay as well. He had a mistress who then died of a drug overdose. He himself was arrested for DUI, had a drug problem, was suspended by the NFL for six games and fined $500,000.
Irsay contends that when the NFL fined Washington $10M and Snyder voluntarily stepped aside that he was not involved in the process and was “not consulted one time,” though he owns one of the 32 NFL franchises.
Irsay insists he strongly supports Roger Goodell as commissioner and has nothing personal against Daniel Snyder.
Snyder wants this to all go away. Might Irsay be enjoying this too much?
