Dan Snyder's Commanders reportedly ban Jeff Bezos from bidding on team
The Washington Commanders are for sale, but they are reportedly not for sale to just anyone.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos has been told by Bank of America, the team's banker, that he is barred from making a bid for the embattled NFL team, according to The Athletic and the New York Post. The ban has reportedly been known for months, but that didn't stop Bezos from recently hiring an investment firm to explore a bid.
The reason Dan Snyder's camp is reportedly preventing one of the richest men in the world from offering billions of dollars for the team seems pretty personal. According to The Athletic, Snyder has believed for years that The Washington Post, which has been owned by Bezos since 2013, has been working to oust him.
It was the Post's intrepid reporting that unearthed much of the rot that put pressure on Snyder, already one of the NFL's most unpopular owners, to sell the team.
Given what has been reported about Snyder's personal pettiness, like a certain story involving milk and the owners of the Washington Nationals, it's no wonder Snyder would let a grudge get in the way of what seemed likely to be the largest possible bid for his team.
Dan Snyder reportedly isn't getting the price he wanted for Commanders
Bezos ban aside, the bidding process for the Commanders reportedly isn't going how Snyder wanted, unless he was never serious about selling the team he's owned since 1999 in the first place.
Snyder was initially reported to be seeking a price of $7 billion, which would easily break the record of $4.56 billion for the Denver Broncos set last year.
The first round of bids, sans Bezos, reportedly saw a high price of $6.3 billion, but the Post reports Snyder didn't even get that high, with a top bid of $5.5 billion coming in before this week's deadline. The Athletic also reported all bids to be below $6 billion.
Snyder is under no requirement to sell at a price he deems low, though, so he could just press on with his team and hope the NFL's current investigation doesn't hit him any harder than the last.
Once one of the most valuable franchises in sports, Snyder's ownership has seen the Commanders' value slip to sixth in the NFL at $5.6 billion, according to Forbes' most recent valuation. The team has not won a playoff game since 2005, while attendance at the team's widely maligned FedEx Field has become steadily more embarrassing.
