Nah Nah Nah…Nah Nah Nah…Hey Hey Hey…GOODBYE CLOWNSHOES

[BringMetheHeadofBruceAllen]

3 hours ago, dunfer said:

What ever happened to that book RG the third was writing about his biggest fan, Dan? 

I think Bobby Three Sticks was paid by Snyder not to publish it, since he claimed he was going to write about the sex pest claims.

[CommDownMan]

1 hour ago, SoCalSkins said:

He did not say trying. His inclusion is pretty much a foregone conclusion. The question is how much control will he have over football decisions? 
 

Yes there is every reason to believe RG3 because he put his name on it. There is no speculation. It was as matter of fact interview as Magic’s stating they have a bid. 
 

Doesn’t really matter because they won’t win but still. 

 

Just like he put his name on a book?

 

Just like he talked about coming back to play qb?

 

Yup,  it's a sealed deal because rg3 went on the radio to talk about himself.  There is no reason to believe him.    You just choose to, so you can push your version of the truth. 

Edited April 4, 2023 by CommDownMan

[dunfer]

7 minutes ago, BringMetheHeadofBruceAllen said:

I think Bobby Three Sticks was paid by Snyder not to publish it, since he claimed he was going to write about the sex pest claims.

Bobby 3 Sticks is such an awesome name

[The Rook]

1 hour ago, SoCalSkins said:

 

https://www.si.com/nfl/commanders/.amp/news/robert-griffin-iii-in-charge-of-commanders-when-dan-snyder-sells-washington-new-owners

 

Foregone conclusion?  This is your reference?  This thing and the Rich Eisen interview is full of maybe's and could be's and RG3's wishes upon a star.  He may be involved in some capacity but your smoking gun is low on ammo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rook

[Voice_of_Reason]

So, I don't really care who ends up with the team.  I see benefits and flaws with all of the ownership groups.  

 

I just want the sale done so we're done with Dan.  As far as anybody can tell, two groups have submitted bids: the Harris Group and the Steve Apostolopoulos group. Either group seems a heck of a lot better than Dan.  Bezos is out there, hasn't submitted a bid yet.  He'd be better than Dan.  And then there is the "mystery" bidder.  I don't think it's a leap of faith to think just about anybody is better than Dan.  So, I don't care.

 

I think what I'm rooting for now is the Harris Group to win the bid without Bezos submitting a bid, and it comes out that Bobby Three Sticks was just talking to talk, and is not in any way part of the group.  Which, btw, if you were handicapping things RIGHT NOW, that's probably the leader in the clubhouse.  

 

Bezos might place a bid, he might not.  

 

But that scenario would cause @SoCalSkins head to explode, and that might be worth the price of admission, which in my case, is free.

 

I also would like Harris to make a statement when he took over he wasn't immediately be changing the coaching or GM structure, which would cause @88Comrade2000's head to explode, which would also be worth the price of admission, which again, is free.  

 

And finally, I am hoping Harris also states he won't be making an immediate change in branding or the name, which will cause all of the Red Wolve cry babies' head's to explode.  

 

FWIW, I think Bobby Three Sticks is full of poop, and is not going to have any role in the Harris group if they do indeed have the winning bid.  The evidence is he just makes stuff up all the time.  He might be trying to talk it into existence.  Like, "if I go on Rich Eisen's podcast, say some ridiculous stuff, maybe Harris will hear it, see the positive reaction to it, and give me a role..."  Which, of course, is typical Griffin bull-poop.

 

I also don't expect a coaching change this late in the off-season.  Or a GM change until after the draft.  

 

Since I don't care who actually gets the team, I'm rooting for my own personal self enjoyment by watching others who talkin absolutes be absolutely wrong. 

 

[FootballZombie]

My preference is still Bezos.

 

I wanna see Harris get absolutely dunked on by another Uber-Billionaire in his attempt to get an NFL team.

 

Edited April 5, 2023 by FootballZombie

[Voice_of_Reason]

43 minutes ago, FootballZombie said:

I wanna see Harris get absolutely dunked on by another Uber-Billionaire in his attempt to get an NFL team.

But then we don't get to dunk on @SoCalSkins

 

 

[SoCalSkins]

12 minutes ago, Voice_of_Reason said:

But then we don't get to dunk on @SoCalSkins

 

 

Dude I am near Yosemite with my kids for spring break with crappy internet and all the mentions I just saw with spotty internet service now I assumed either Harris bid was accepted or Bezos bid and won! 😂 

[Andre The Giant]

 

Edited April 5, 2023 by Andre The Giant

[Warhead36]

I think Bezos is out personally. If he were going to make a bid he would have by now and someone would leak it. His people did the due diligence and probably felt like it wasn't worth it with how many issues plague the franchise(stadium, outdated facilities, completely apathetic fanbase etc.). He'll just wait for the Seahawks to be available.

[SoCalSkins]

11 minutes ago, Andre The Giant said:

 

Just a matter of time.
 

I’m out near the woods and it’s like luring wild animals. There are deer near the balcony of my cabin and they are skittish. My kids kept scaring them off by getting too excited. I played it calm and lured them with salted butter crackers. Don’t let the tree huggers tell you they like lettuce etc. They like processed crap food like fat people. I’m the expert at fat people food! I just had them eating out of my hand. Exactly like Bezos is doing with Dan. A matter of patience and time and an irresistible enticement. Crackers for my friends, brinks truck loads of cash for Dan. 

 

 

[spjunkies]

3 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

I think Bezos is out personally. If he were going to make a bid he would have by now and someone would leak it. His people did the due diligence and probably felt like it wasn't worth it with how many issues plague the franchise(stadium, outdated facilities, completely apathetic fanbase etc.). He'll just wait for the Seahawks to be available.

 

He's doing the same thing the Walmart people did with the Broncos. Wait for the price to get set (we're here now) and then strike.

 

This mess is almost over, thank goodness. 

Edited April 5, 2023 by spjunkies

[SoCalSkins]

24 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

I think Bezos is out personally. If he were going to make a bid he would have by now and someone would leak it. His people did the due diligence and probably felt like it wasn't worth it with how many issues plague the franchise(stadium, outdated facilities, completely apathetic fanbase etc.). He'll just wait for the Seahawks to be available.

The fact it’s now reported Bezos spoke directly to Dan kills any uncertainty. If Dan didn’t want to sell to him he would have hashed it out then.

 

Most likely scenario is they came to an agreement that Bezos would be sidelined to permit the maximum bids without his involvement then he would be allowed to come in at the end and provide his best and final.

 

We are neatly there now. 
 

 

[Conn]

Quick somebody hire this woman to consult on the inevitable logo redesign 

[CapsSkins]

Here's the Puck article on Bezos (no real info, just more speculation):

 

Gaming the Bezos-NFL Silent Auction

Is Jeff Bezos really sitting out the chance to land the most coveted job in Washington? Or has he found a way to circumvent the public campaign process for the Commanders entirely?

 

Over the last few months, the fog of confusion regarding the true intentions of Jeff Bezos toward his latest paramour, the Washington Commanders, has only gotten more foggy, more confusing, and more contradictory—complexified, in Bezos nomenclature. Bezos hired elite bankers, and yet they sat out the first round of bids. There were hysterical reports that he might sell The Washington Post in order to buy the team, but of course those were never true. Then there was the well-worn talking point that the current owner, Dan Snyder, would rather sell to the devil than the guy whose paper kicked up the reportage that compromised his credibility … only to be contradicted by leaks that Snyder was, actually, totally cool with him. Indeed, separating truth from fiction surrounding Bezos, a subject of tabloid fascination ever since those underbelt selfies, the Saudi strawman, and Lauren Sanchez entered the picture, has vexed just about everybody around the NFL, sources tell me, from other prospective owners to Bezos’s own friends.

Perhaps that’s just the way Jeff wants it. Almost as if encircling a coveted M&A target, like Zappos or OneMedical, Bezos has hovered over the entire sale process from the starting gun, but at the remove of a principal—refusing to make his intentions plain, preserving his optionality, and milking a will-he-or-won’t-he media circus that keeps everyone, including Snyder and other bidders, guessing.

The trouble for onlookers around the NFL is that strategic silence and total indifference look exactly the same on the surface. There is a foreboding anxiety in league circles that Bezos has been diligently keeping quiet before decisively pouncing on the Commanders at the last minute. If Bezos does want to make a bid, however, his time is running out. Two other billionaires, Apollo co-founder Josh Harris and Canadian real estate developer Steve Apostolopous, last week submitted fully-financed $6 billion bids, alongside their investment groups, for a process that could wrap up by this month’s NFL draft. For the moment, Harris is seen as the frontrunner. But what if Bezos finally gets off the pot? “I think there’s a ton of dog whistling here for Bezos to come in,” said one person close to the talks.

 

---

The Dog Whistle

In recent years, Bezos has repeatedly expressed to friends his interest in buying some NFL franchise, I’m told. Bezos, despite being a Trekkie, played a little football growing up, “barely clearing the league weight limit” according to biographer Brad Stone, and as an adult he’s always considered it his favorite sport. He has only gotten more invested in the sport since linking up with Sanchez, and Bezos has his own personal friendship with her ex-husband, Tony Gonzalez, a Hall of Fame tight end who broadcasts Amazon’s Thursday night game. But, lamentably, there just aren’t that many teams for sale.

Bezos’s interest became more than just theoretical when an embattled Snyder came under pressure to sell the Commanders. In early 2021, around the time that he stepped down as C.E.O. of Amazon, Bezos dispatched Paul Dauber, his right hand in all his personal business affairs, to poke around the team. When league pressure on Snyder reached a crescendo, in late 2022, Snyder announced in a brief statement that he had hired Bank of America, with Elliott McCabe, Yasir Shah and Jim Nash, to “consider possible transactions.” The opportunity was now there. Bezos, at this point a regular on the Washington restaurant scene, and with a party mansion in Kalorama, rocketed to the top of the prospective shortlist. 

His interest was not merely an idle fancy—he was absolutely intrigued, I’m told. Bezos could have done this himself, but in a sign of his commitment, he decided to hire a team at Allen & Co.—Steve Greenberg, Terry Morris and Mike Melnitzky—to explore an offer. The Allen sports team lacks extensive buy-side experience, as several peers noted, but are known for their discretion. Bezos and Allen were granted a nondisclosure agreement to peruse the team’s financials (although Bezos, unlike other NDA’d prospective buyers, didn’t tour the facilities). According to a person briefed on the conversation, Bezos also spoke directly with Snyder sometime around the holidays.

The Snyder-Bezos relationship has been scrutinized ad nauseum, and for good reason. The two know each other in a Washington kind of way, but lack a real substantive relationship, I’m told. And Snyder is known to hold grudges. When Bezos’s newspaper first exposed the Commanders’ troubling workplace culture in its pages, a few years back, Snyder was incensed. Bezos, of course, was not directing the coverage as the Post’s owner, but egos are fragile among the billionaire set. A similar beef allegedly reared its head when Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver refused to countenance an offer for the team from an investor group that included Bob Iger. In that case, Sarver lost his grip on the franchise after ESPN reported allegations of racism and impropriety within his organization.

There have been wildly contradictory reports over whether this ostensible antagonism would actually cause Snyder to turn down a deal that makes him richer. I’ve been skeptical. “If you ****ing tell me that Bezos puts in a bid that is $250 million more than anybody else and Dan won’t take it, you’re smoking dope,” said one person who knows Snyder well. “Dan will give Bezos a piggyback ride around the building on opening day next year for $250 million, okay?” Indeed, this may amount to sly dealmaking optionality of his own on Snyder’s end: a leaked stiff-arm calculated to amplify the premium of selling to a guy he hates.

 

Plus, another dealmaker argued to me that it’s in Snyder’s interest to publicly signal that Bezos is not in the running at all, regardless of whether it is true. “Early on in this process, when Bezos was rumored to be involved, every potential bidder I talked to [said]… ‘We’re certainly not going to do it if Jeff Bezos is involved,’” said one source. “We’re not going to waste money on lawyers and accountants and bandwidth and putting our diligence teams in there if all we are is a stalking horse for Jeff Bezos.”

---

“If Jeff Really Wants It, He Will Win It”

When it comes to the other 31 owners, the ones who are not Dan Snyder, the logic of letting Bezos into one of America’s most exclusive clubs is obvious. First and foremost is that Bezos, with a net worth of $127 billion, would pay top dollar and remake the term sheet. NFL owners buy and sell in an illiquid market: There are 32 teams, with a franchise available only every few years or so, and a frothy deal marks up the stock and reprices everyone else’s equity value for when they want to sell. One dealmaker told me that he had spoken with four NFL owners recently, and that all of them had voiced excitement about welcoming Bezos into the club. “They’re hoping every day that he comes in with a crazy number.”

Working against Bezos in the owner’s club, though, has been what to make of Amazon, where Bezos remains executive chairman and the company’s largest shareholder. Amazon broadcasts Thursday Night Football, and the company in some ways represents the future, if not the present, of the league. Some dealmakers I spoke to think this is resolved simply with a Bezos recusal from all questions related to media deals. Others point out that such a recusal would be prohibitive given how much team revenue is based on media rights. “They are potentially screwing with the TV rights,” said one banker talking with people involved in the deal. Amazon is “gonna be one of the major players in rights, so anything that compromises the integrity of that, or diminishes it, is worth a lot more and has a lot bigger detrimental impact” than selling the team for cheaper to Harris or Apostolopoulos.

There is one last related theory here. There’s a cultural caricature that the NFL owners form a cliquey fraternity where they count their money and laugh off various cultural issues as a waste of time. In reality, though, they are wildly wealthy and competitive men who are used to being the smartest and richest guys in the room. “[Bezos] is the only guy who makes every owner feel poorer,” said the banker. Not to mention someone who could outsmart them and double-dip via his company’s broadcast rights deal. Snyder presumably knows that there is a potential latent anxiety about Bezos just as much as he knows that he needs 24 of his peers to ratify a deal. If Bezos comes in at the last minute, preventing the owners and media from yammering over his bid for months, potentially imperiling it, that might be the only way to get the deal done after all.

That is why other prospective ownership groups remain on pins and needles, disturbed that Bezos is playing three dimensional chess in a highly irregular, highly idiosyncratic bake-off. Unlike Harris, Bezos easily can meet the requirement that the lead buyer own 30 percent of the team with no need for a fundraising consortium—Jay-Z, a Bezos pal, and Matthew McConaughey, a Snyder pal, are part of his exploratory bid for kicks. Neither Harris nor Apostolopoulos can defeat Bezos in a game of checkbook roulette. 

 

“If you’re the bankers and you’re running this process,” said one dealmaker, “it’s almost malpractice not to call him at the end.” After all, if Bezos truly wants the Commanders, he has the ability to plop down a big number and put an end to the auction. “If Jeff really wants it, he will win it,” said another. “I’m very confused. Because if I’m in Jeff’s position, and I really want this team, I put in a preemptive bid and I win.”

---

Bezos Game Theory

Unlike Harris, Bezos has the luxury of not needing to run a traditional M&A playbook or P.R. campaign. “He doesn’t have to play the game,” said one person who has played that very game on multiple sports bids, himself. The all-caps Charlie Gasparino leaks and counter-leaks have effectively frozen the field. A Bezos spokeswoman, Stephanie Jones, declined to comment for this piece.

The slow pace of talks, and the absence of additional alternatives, has fueled some speculation, now gaining traction in league circles, that after all this, Snyder might decide to not sell the team at all. The public and political pressure on the longtime owner has unquestionably eased from last fall, when he announced with two sentences that he was considering possible transactions without any firm commitments Leaked deadline after leaked deadline have slipped past with no deal. What if Snyder squirrels out of this one, and decides to sit on an asset that he knows will only appreciate in value as media deals get bigger and bigger? 

 

That would require Bezos to be patient, too—at least until his hometown Seahawks hit the block in a few years, or whenever Jody Allen, the sister of the late Paul Allen, decides to sell. After all, Harris lost out on the Broncos not even one year ago before sitting in the catbird seat this time around. It may be gibberish for a ferocious competitor like Bezos to hear this, but sometimes you’ve got to lose first to win later.

[Est.1974]

Ok, I’m ready for an answer either way now. Hurry up.

[88Comrade2000]

12 minutes ago, Est.1974 said:

Ok, I’m ready for an answer either way now. Hurry up.

I expect it to drag on a little bit longer. Dan is waiting for Jeffy to swoop in but Jeffy may decide not to.

 

So, all eyes 👀 are on little Jeffy. Does he swoop in or does he break Dan and SCS ❤️?

[FootballZombie]

That article further confirmed the idea that in order for Snyder to make any kind of real money on this sale, Bezos had to be barred from entering and bidders had to believe it would stay that way, whether it was true or not.

 

They said the bidders they talked to, would not even put in the time of day to do due diligence if they knew Bezos was stalking. Makes a lot of sense when you consider those that craft the storylines doing everything in their power to make us believe Snyder would never sale to Bezos. Without that narrative, this org would find it much more difficult to attract bidders.

[Est.1974]

26 minutes ago, FootballZombie said:

That article further confirmed the idea that in order for Snyder to make any kind of real money on this sale, Bezos had to be barred from entering and bidders had to believe it would stay that way, whether it was true or not.

 

They said the bidders they talked to, would not even put in the time of day to do due diligence if they knew Bezos was stalking. Makes a lot of sense when you consider those that craft the storylines doing everything in their power to make us believe Snyder would never sale to Bezos. Without that narrative, this org would find it much more difficult to attract bidders.

Agreed. I specifically said that a while back that about Harris getting his pants pulled down at the last minute in the Broncos sale. If you knew Bezos was there, why bother as you know he’s going to blow you out of the water eventually. 
 

Waste of time.

[Monte51Coleman]

Day 7 of my being unconvinced that Robert Griffin could afford to offer complimentary coffee at the team facility, much less any tangible value to the ownership group.

[Darrell Green Fan]

11 hours ago, BringMetheHeadofBruceAllen said:

I think Bobby Three Sticks was paid by Snyder not to publish it, since he claimed he was going to write about the sex pest claims.

 

This has always been my opinion as well.  

[Skinsinparadise]

That Bezos article posted here is interesting.  But it has a depressing point suggested in the mix.

 

A.  The Fox Business News leaks from Dan about please, please please Bezos bid might have frozen action from the other bidders.

 

B.  The delay of this dragging might convince Dan to hold on to the team and just say screw it 

 

Personally I doubt it, all indications are Dan is selling.  And I really don't see what Bezos has to gain if he plans to bd to continue to sit it out.  Eventually time will run out.  Does Dan really want to pay those contracts that he staggered to May 12th?  I suspect Dan would be willing to wait out the month if needs be but I doubt he waits out for months more.

Edited April 5, 2023 by Skinsinparadise

[Est.1974]

1 minute ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

A.  The Fox Business News leaks from Dan about please, please please Bezos bid might have frozen action from the other bidders.

 

B.  The delay of this dragging might convince Dan to hold on to the team and just say screw it 

I also doubt B

 

A is a definite possibility. 
 

You’d be pushing Dan for an answer if your bid had been lying on the table for a while now.

[Skinsinparadise]

4 minutes ago, Est.1974 said:

I also doubt B

 

A is a definite possibility. 
 

You’d be pushing Dan for an answer if your bid had been lying on the table for a while now.

 

It could be Bezos enjoying turning the tables on Dan with Dan squirming where he wants Bezos to bid and with each passing day he feels more desperate.

 

I tend to believe narratives with there is some overlap from reporter to reporter, etc.  So I do believe Dan really wants Bezos to bid.  What I don't know is whether Bezos will do it. 

 

And if Bezos plans to bid its somewhat annoying that he's still playing this out. At this point I don't see what there is to gain to sit this out further aside from making Dan squirm. 

Edited April 5, 2023 by Skinsinparadise

[ntotoro]

Whoever buys the team, we can't get depressed at the process and worry about the sale. Dan has to sell. The sheer economics of this ensure that he has to. He simply can't afford to keep the team, or it'll just rot like a fruit the longer it takes. That $500M loan will get called one day and he'll be screwed and the team will be taken from him and he can't afford to build a new stadium.

 

This is going to happen. It's just a matter of time and anyone with this kind of cash at hand knows Dan is playing a losing game of chicken.