5 things Dan Snyder got critically wrong as Commanders owner

The Washington Commanders name saga

The headache associated with the nickname that had been in place since before the franchise even came to Washington was bound to engender waves of anger. Both sides of the debate had passionate believers whose minds were not going to be changed.

Navigating such a public relations minefield would require great skill and finesse. Sadly, Dan Snyder may have been the worst-equipped owner in the entire league to handle it.

It wasn’t simply Snyder’s penchant for hiding when things got difficult. That certainly hurt, because, as discussed earlier, it made him come off as being too thin-skinned to take whatever criticism would come.

But he made things even worse by posing as a tough guy. Back in May 2013, Snyder was quoted in USA Today as saying:

"“We’ll never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER – you can use caps.”"

As we all know, that proved to be an idle boast. Seven years later, with mounting public and financial pressure, the franchise announced the name would in fact be changed.

As has been typical throughout his tenure, the statement came from the franchise at large, and not from the owner. Though I believe he did issue one or two brief statements, most of the explaining was left to others.

George Bush once lost a presidential election in large part because he issued an ironclad statement about taxes (the “Read my lips” quote), and then reversed course. Apparently, Snyder didn’t learn much from that. He wanted to come across as being strong, and it backfired in spectacular fashion.

Look at how this played out. Supporters of the name change were not about to give the owner credit due to his antagonistic statements of the past. They pointed out that it was only when FedEx led a corporate revolt that he suddenly saw the light. And his few remaining fans, who took pride in their owner’s willingness to preserve something they valued, felt betrayed.

Most fans in the middle – which I believe constituted most fans overall – just shook their heads at one more self-inflicted wound that left their beloved franchise an irrelevant laughing stock. Leave it to Snyder to take a bad situation and make it a lot worse.