Redskins: Inside Dan Snyder’s tragic quest to be a hero

A thirst for opposition

Snyder sees the backlash. He knows, more or less, of his reputation, both inside the Redskins fan base, and amongst the league’s other executives. Why does he show no remorse?

Because Snyder thirsts for opposition. It adds to the hero archetype he desperately seeks. The “Me against the world” mentality. A lengthy excerpt from Mike Freeman’s book titled Two Minute Warning: How Concussions, Crime and Controversy Could Kill the NFL (and What the League Can Do to Survive), presented by Chris Lingenbach of CBS D.C., characterizes the nature of Snyder’s thought process, and just how far it goes.

The quote details a tense standoff at the 2012 NFL owners’ meetings, where the Redskins were given an opportunity to address cap penalties incurred in the previous year. Bruce Allen was present, and he again fulfilled his sole purpose as Snyder’s hammer, to the owner’s hysteric delight.

"According to a longtime NFL team executive who was present, it wasn’t long into his speech before [Bruce] Allen threatened to sue every owner in the NFL. He would go on to get more fiery, personal and ugly from there, as he began pacing furiously around the hotel ballroom. There were more threats of a lawsuit. Allen grew angrier. He began screaming. He wasn’t done. He then pointed at each member of the management council, saying Washington and Dallas should have never been penalized because the council had approved the very contracts that would cause the teams to be punished. He saved some of his harshest remarks for John Mara, co-owner of the Giants and one of the most respected men in all of sports, a key cog who has been with the team for decades. Mara was furious. Everyone in the room was stunned. Owners and executives, sitting just several feet from one another, began texting each other, incredulous at what they were witnessing. In some of the texts, Allen was facetiously called Clarence Darrow, the legendary litigator known for his bombastic courtroom speeches. Owners and executives say they had never seen anything like it. Nobody had ever gotten so personal or made such threats."

According to Freeman’s book, via Lingenbach’s article, while Allen filibustered on the open floor, Snyder “gleefully swiveled back and forth in a chair that practically enveloped him, at times smiling widely.”

While Snyder swivels like a child watching a colorful action flick, his fanbase crumbles. Yellow seats lie empty, and per Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post, NFL owners place the blame on Snyder and his puppet, Allen, who is seen as “literally, a joke” in NFL circles.

None of this bothers Snyder. To him, it’s all part of the plan. He knew it wouldn’t be easy. Heroes always have their adversaries. Heroes are always portrayed as the underdog; with the odds stacked against them. It is the struggle that makes the fabled tale.

But the odds weren’t always against Snyder. He took charge of a storied franchise in 1999, a franchise that had won a Super Bowl less than ten years prior. And over the course of twenty years, he’s earned his unsavory reputation with his business practices, his interactions, both with his NFL peers and with the Redskins fans who’ve lost their faith, and his reckless methods on the quest to becoming a hero.

But for Snyder, the ends justify the means.

The villain always believes this.