There is an ESPN story out today on Dan Snyder’s reaction to the Washington Commanders’ success, and as you can imagine, Danny boy ain’t smiling. In the story, written by Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr., it mentions how Snyder tried to blow up the deal at the last minute back in July of 2023, and it took several people to reach out and eventually force him to let go and send the routing information so Josh Harris could wire the $6 billion to complete the sale.
One of those people: Joe Jackson Gibbs.
As we all know now, the league pressured Snyder into selling the team, and he begrudgingly went along, setting the price at an astronomical $6 billion, probably thinking nobody was going to meet that price. Harris and company did, but at the last second Snyder decided he didn’t want the deal to go through and refused to share his banking information so the money could be wired. A wave of phone calls then ensued to convince Snyder to do the right thing, and apparently one got through to him.
This paragraph gives you some clue who it was: “Months later,” the story says, “Tad Brown, CEO of HBSE, told confidants, “We don’t get the Commanders if not for Joe Gibbs.”’
So let’s review: Gibbs came to Washington and turned the franchise around. He won Super Bowls. He made being a Washington fan cool. And now we find out he saved the team from staying in Dan Snyder’s destructive hands and made sure even though well into his 80s, he finished the job of getting the team he built into good and safe hands.
That’s quite a legacy.
Making me wonder why is there not a statue of this man in front of the stadium? Like, today?
