So what happened to those days of partying on the yacht, flying around the world and the intimate games of Putt-Putt in the office?
What happened to the Bruce Allen-Dan Snyder love?
The Allen-Snyder marriage, which began in December 2009, was over when the former general manager turned on his heels and headed past the Washington Football Team owner’s SUV and down the tunnel and out of AT&T Stadium after the final game of the 2019 season, a 47-16 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
It officially ended hours later, when the team released a statement the next morning saying Allen had been “relieved of his duties” and was “no longer with the organization.”
“Like our passionate fan base, I recognize we have not lived up to the high standards set by great Redskins teams, coaches and players who have come before us,” Snyder said in the statement. “As we reevaluate our team leadership, culture and process for winning football games, I am excited for the opportunities that lie ahead to renew our singular focus and purpose of bringing championship football back to Washington D.C.”
But as is so often the case, the end of the marriage is just the beginning of the divorce.
The two men, it turns out, couldn’t just go their separate ways without resentment and revenge — a currency familiar to both.
Snyder’s “singular” focus appears to be payback for whatever real or perceived crimes that he believes were committed against him — even though, with the NFL’s decision to allow Snyder to borrow money to buy out his disgruntled minority owners to gain 100% control of the franchise, it appears that Snyder has won … well, pretty much everything.
That’s not good enough apparently.
The Allen-Snyder breakup may wind up playing out in a courtroom, with the news this week from The Athletic that Snyder is looking to depose his former Putt-Putt buddy in the bizarre lawsuit the owner has filed against an Indian website — Meaww.com — that posted an article last summer suggesting Snyder was somehow involved with the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, with no evidence of any such connection.
As he continues this fight, does Snyder realize that with every article about his lawsuit someone mentions him and Jeffrey Epstein to describe the case?
According to The Athletic, court documents state that Snyder “has a good faith belief that Respondent (Allen) has specific knowledge of the creation and distribution of the MEAWW articles, and thus has information relevant to the Indian Action.”
Snyder isn’t suing Allen — at least not yet. But he suspects that Allen was somehow part of this alleged smear campaign that supposedly included former minority owner and Joe Gibbs confidant Dwight Schar. Now the owner wants his former right-hand man questioned under oath.
There aren’t enough Bibles in Joel Osteen’s garage for that oath.
Snyder is suspicious about the contact between Allen and investment banker John Moag, representing the minority owners who wanted to get away from Snyder, shortly after Allen was fired — allegedly 87 phone calls, totaling 1,217 minutes — between January and November 2020.
The Athletic report said in the six weeks leading up to the articles in question, Moag and Allen spoke 21 times for 270 minutes. “These calls are notable not only for their frequency and length, but for the fact that Mr. Moag himself had extensive contact with representatives of the media both before and after the publication of the Defamatory Articles, and also has exhibited advance knowledge of forthcoming negative articles about Petitioner.”
Moag — a former Maryland Stadium Authority chairman — is not the guy you want to go after if you are trying to get a new stadium built in Maryland. But you know what they say about revenge — it’s like drinking poison and waiting for it to kill your enemy.
Speaking of poison, what about that Beth Wilkinson investigation into the sexual harassment allegations against the owner’s football organization by the numerous women outlined in the Washington Post reporting — and Snyder’s own $1.6 million settlement for a former female employee who accused Snyder of sexual misconduct?
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters on Feb. 4 Wilkinson was close to completing the probe. The NFL draft was months away then. Now it is approaching fast — starting Thursday, April 29 — a convenient time to bury even a watered-down Wilkinson report, where anything less than a recommendation to force Snyder to sell the team will be another win for the owner.
Hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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