The last time NFL owners met, two months ago in lower Manhattan, a privileged session containing only owners and their kin concluded with commissioner Roger Goodell delivering a forceful message.
He told the league’s biggest power brokers, more or less, to pipe down, and let the process take care of itself. Colts owner Jim Irsay had stepped out of line hours earlier, and explained to the media that he wanted his peers to seriously consider pressing the nuclear button—and, if the evidence warranted it, to vote out Commanders owner Dan Snyder. In reaction, Goodell told them to trust that he and the league office would land on the right conclusion.
Then came the news of Snyder hiring Bank of America and publicly acknowledging that he’d look at selling the team. That represented a 180 from every other statement he or the team had made, and, well, it seemed like the writing was on the wall.
