Report: Dan Snyder Agrees to $6B Commanders Sale to Josh Harris, Magic Johnson Group

Daniel Snyder reportedly will no longer be the owner of the Washington Commanders.

According to Sportico's Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams, the long-term owner has agreed in principle to sell the team to a group led by Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Josh Harris for $6 billion. The group also includes Los Angeles Lakers icon Magic Johnson.

Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal confirmed the deal.

According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the deal has not been finalized, and the bid must still be submitted and approved.

After news of Snyder's reported agreement to sell to the Harris group, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Canadian billionaire Steve Apostopolous was still in the mix, with a source calling it a "head-to-head race."

Under Snyder, the Commanders were involved in a series of scandals, including 15 former female employees accusing a number of former male Commanders' executives and employees of sexual harassment and verbal abuse between the years 2006-19.

Another report emerged in Aug. 2020 that members of Washington's organization made videos and privately distributed them to Snyder, showing outtakes of the team's cheerleaders during photo shoots, where their nipples and other body parts were exposed on camera.

In December of that year, reports emerged that Snyder paid out a $1.6 million settlement in an alleged sexual misconduct lawsuit.

And a number of woman levied additional claims of sexual harassment against Snyder in Feb. 2022.

Among those accused of sexual harassment and verbal abuse were former director of pro personnel Alex Santos, former assistant director of pro personnel Richard Mann II, former radio announcer Larry Michael, former president of business operations Dennis Greene and former chief operating officer Mitch Gershman. Snyder and former general manager Dennis Allen were not accused of misconduct in the report.

The Washington Post reported:

"Former women employees said the first few weeks ... often came with an informal, but invaluable, orientation administered privately by veteran female employees who warned them to avoid certain people and places, such as the staircase near the entrance to team headquarters. Lined at the top with transparent plexiglass, the stairs descend from the lobby to the locker room and training area, and someone standing at the bottom can look up the skirt of a woman standing at the top."

Many of the former employees who spoke to the Washington Post did so anonymously after signing non-disclosure agreements that threatened "legal retribution if they speak negatively about the club."

Washington's organization has also had major culture issues in the past. In May 2018, team cheerleaders said they had been asked to pose topless or while only wearing body paint for a 2013 calendar photo shoot in Costa Rica. Present at the photo shoot, however, were also male sponsors and FedEx Field suite holders, watching them pose.

Some of those cheerleaders were also expected to serve as escorts for those male sponsors at a nightclub.

"It's just not right to send cheerleaders out with strange men when some of the girls clearly don't want to go," one of the cheerleaders said in 2018. "But unfortunately, I feel like it won't change until something terrible happens, like a girl is assaulted in some way, or raped. I think teams will start paying attention to this only when it's too late."

The NFL ultimately fined the Commanders organization $10 million as a result of its investigation into the team's workplace culture, but didn't release its findings publicly.

But the U.S. House of Representatives' Oversight Committee also began its own inquiry and called upon the NFL to publicly reveal its findings, eventually subpoenaing Snyder after he refused to testify. One of that investigation's findings was that Snyder and his legal advisors worked to discredit the women who accused members of the organization of sexual assault and harassment, and also worked to discredit the reporters who covered the story.

And in 2022, reports emerged that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Virginia attorney general were investigating Snyder and the Commanders for potentially keeping two separate sets of books, potentially in an effort to subvert the NFL's revenue-sharing system.

That investigation was perhaps the turning point amongst the league's other owners.

"For the first time, there's been chatter," a team owner told Jarrett Bell of USA Today about the possibility of NFL owners voting to oust Snyder. "We should really think about doing something if they find something there."

While it appeared as though the NFL was ready to see Snyder go, the embattled owner reportedly braced for a fight. In Oct. 2022, ESPN's Seth Wickersham, Don Van Natta Jr. and Tisha Thompson reported that "Snyder recently told a close associate that he has gathered enough secrets to 'blow up' several NFL owners, the league office and even commissioner Roger Goodell" and even hired private investigators to dig up dirt on powerful NFL figures, including Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

"The NFL is a mafia," Snyder reportedly told an associate. "All the owners hate each other."

"That's not true," one veteran owner countered in the ESPN report. "All the owners hate Dan."

And then Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay came out and publicly said it might be time for Snyder to go:

From that moment on, it felt inevitable that Snyder's time in the NFL was drawing to a close.

That feeling was hastened in early Nov. 2022 when the Commanders announced that Snyder was bringing aboard Bank of America Securities to look into "potential transactions," the first indication that he may finally be willing to sell the team.

That came on the same day that Natta reported that the U.S. attorney's office in the Eastern District of Virginia had commenced a "criminal investigation into allegations that the Washington Commanders engaged in financial improprieties."

The timing of those two events didn't feel coincidental. The writing was on the wall.

Snyder's tenure was marked by other controversies as well, most notably his long-enduring refusal to change the team's previous and offensive nickname despite public pressure to do so, namely from Native American groups. He changed his tune in 2020 when a number of sponsors, including stadium rights-holder FedEx, applied public pressure and threatened to pull the team's merchandise from online stores.

Snyder, whose purchase of the team was approved in 1999, also saw limited success during his tenure. In his time as owner of the team, Washington reached the postseason six times and had just six winning seasons. None of Snyder's teams won more than 10 games in a season, and Washington went just 2-6 in the postseason under his watch.

Snyder cycled through 10 coaches—Norv Turner (1999-00), Terry Robiskie (2000), Marty Schottenheimer (2001), Steve Spurrier (2002-03), Joe Gibbs (2004-07), Jim Zorn (2008-09), Mike Shanahan (2010-13), Jay Gruden (2014-19), Bill Callahan (2019) and Ron Rivera (2020-present)—in his 21 years of ownership.

The far more constant presence during his tenure was Allen, who served as the team's general manager, among other roles including president, between 2010-19. Under Allen's leadership the team went 62-97-1.