Dan Snyder Didn’t Count On Someone Like Jim Irsay Calling His Bluff

Remember those awesome action movies from the 1980s and 1990s, where some bloodthirsty bad guy was on the loose, so the shady government bureaucrats would pull in a retired, slight-less-bloodthirsty former bad guy to clean up the mess?

In twisted movie logic, it took a villain to take down a villain.

That’s basically what Jim Irsay became for NFL owners Tuesday in the Dan Snyder saga: A far less buff version of Jean-Claude Van Damme or Arnold Schwarzenegger to do the league’s dirty work.

On the heels of Snyder reportedly digging up “dirt” on his NFL colleagues to prevent them from removing his control of the Washington Commanders, Irsay called Snyder’s bluff at the owners’ meetings in New York. Speaking to reporters at the Conrad Hotel, the legacy boss of the Indianapolis Colts was quoted as saying, “I believe there’s merit to remove him as owner.”

With that, Snyder’s alleged blackmail gambit failed. Because in contrast to many other image-conscious powerbrokers in the NFL, Irsay has nothing to lose.

Apparently, Snyder didn’t consider the possibility of being called out by someone whose reputation has already gotten dragged — rightfully — through the mud. Irsay, after all, has heard every possible angle of criticism and been the butt of endless mockery over his 2014 citation and suspension for driving while impaired. He’s been a hero who donated 10,000 N-95 masks during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in the spring of 2020 and the foil who needlessly ripped into ex-Colts quarterback Carson Wentz after the journeyman was already out the door.

With so much of his dirty laundry already aired, Irsay’s message to Snyder was basically: You got something on me? Let’s hear it.

“You can investigate me ’til the cows come home, that’s not going to back me off,” Irsay said, as quoted by Ben Volin of The Boston Globe. “I just focus on the issue at what’s happened in Washington, and to me it’s gravely concerning.”

Whereas Irsay’s remarks were a bold departure from procedure for the normally united ownership fraternity, it shouldn’t be taken for granted that this is Snyder’s death knell. Over the years, the supposed final straw has occurred again and again and again, only for Snyder to essentially wait out each new controversy.

Still, milquetoast NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has proven he’s more than willing to take bold, decisive action — once somebody else opens the door and leads the way. The fact that Irsay was finally the one willing to speak up — without any concern for his already blemished image — suggests this time, truly, could be different.