And Lord knows, in both national public life and our personal lives, we’ve seen nice guys finish last. We’ve seen the unscrupulous and unethical prosper. The #MeToo scandals demonstrated that the country has no shortage of powerful, famous and wealthy men who are creeps and abusers. It is all too easy to grow cynical and believe that ethics and good judgment hold people back and that in our society, much like a fetid pond, the scum rises to the top.
But the rise and fall of so many infamous characters in our national life suggests the aphorism just needs a little tweaking: Character is destiny — eventually.
And if you doubt that, consider the now ex-Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder.
Sure, Snyder walks with $6 billion, and he gets to sail away on his superyacht with a built-in Imax theater. But he was already fabulously wealthy when he began as owner. And now, by just about every measure other than his balance sheet, he’s poor. Snyder can’t buy himself a better reputation, a better record or the trust of fans, any of his former business partners or anyone else in professional sports. He cashed in but lost everything else along the way.
Snyder’s reign was a colossal failure, and the team’s performance on the field would be bad enough. Perhaps fans of the then-Redskins were spoiled by a spectacular run of success, including three Super Bowls between 1983 and 1992, and should have been prepared for some lean years. But the National Football League is built for parity; the worst team gets the first pick in the following year’s draft of new players. It is hard to be consistently excellent for many years in a row, and it should be similarly hard to be consistently terrible for many years in a row. Under Snyder and a rotating carousel of hyped coaches and high-priced free agents, the Redskins — then the Washington Football Team and then the Commanders — accumulated a record of 164 wins, 220 losses and two ties, with a postseason record of two wins and six losses.
As many fans despairingly observe, the team had more names than playoff wins during the Snyder era.
But quite a few NFL teams have struggles, and their owners aren’t nearly as detested and villainized. It’s the off-the-field issues that made the team an embarrassment to loyal and patient fans who once made up arguably the most impassioned fan base in the league.
The Redskins-turned-Commanders faced widespread claims of sexual harassment, verbal abuse and a toxic workplace culture. Emails revealed Jon Gruden, a coach-turned-TV analyst, wrote racist and misogynist comments to Bruce Allen, then the president of the team. Snyder sued fans for backing out of season–ticket purchases during a recession and sued Washington City Paper for defamation, ultimately dropping the suit. He reportedly collected “dirt” on other owners and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. A team employee described Snyder’s philosophy to The Post’s Sally Jenkins as saying whatever the other person wants to hear, smiling and shaking hands and then screwing them over at the first opportunity.
One of the worst tragedies of all this is how unnecessary it was. Snyder didn’t have to act this way to build a winner. He didn’t have to act this way to become rich. At seemingly every juncture, he chose to treat people badly just because he could. Had he been a nicer, more honest person who was more respectful of others, the team might not have been better on the field, but the organization’s reputation would be better.
Character is destiny — eventually.
No wonder the Commanders ranked last in the NFL in average home attendance last year, and the stands of FedEx Field now regularly look like a home game for the Eagles, the Giants and even the lowly New York Jets. Who wants to root for an underperforming team that’s constantly getting in trouble off the field, that reportedly has an internal culture that seems as decadent as the late Roman empire?
In one last insult, as the fans were celebrating a new owner, the NFL announced Thursday that Snyder sexually harassed a team employee and oversaw team executives who deliberately withheld millions of dollars in revenue from other clubs. He agreed to pay a $60 million fine.
If you could go back in time to 1999 and ask the then-34-year-old new owner Snyder what he hoped to achieve over the next 2½ decades, he would have described the opposite of this embarrassing mess. Snyder wanted to win, and like many people, he probably wanted to be celebrated as an icon of intrepid virtues. He probably wanted respect, admiration, prestige and maybe to stir a little envy.
Today, you might want Snyder’s wealth, but you would never want to be him. He ends his tenure as one of the most widely despised figures in Washington — ever. A lot of people lose their jobs; almost none see parties thrown throughout the metropolitan area to celebrate their departure.
It’s a sad, sordid, outraging, embarrassing and depressing story. But Dan Snyder’s character wouldn’t allow any other outcome.
