SI:AM | The Commanders: New Name, Same Scandals

Plus, a heartwarming moment during the Rays’ game.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Here’s the latest on one of the most contemptible people in sports, Daniel Snyder. 

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The Commanders are in deep trouble

Things keep getting worse for Washington’s newly rebranded NFL team.

The franchise has been under congressional scrutiny since October, when two House Democrats requested documents from the NFL so they could investigate allegations of Washington’s toxic workplace environment. The House Oversight Committee held a “hybrid roundtable” in early February to discuss “workplace misconduct and the NFL’s failure to take steps to prevent sexual harassment and verbal abuse within the Washington Football Team under the leadership of owner Dan Snyder,” the committee said.

Snyder has thus far avoided serious repercussions, but late last month the committee announced the focus of its probe had expanded beyond sexual harassment and workplace misconduct to encompass allegations of financial improprieties. Yesterday, the details of those alleged crimes came to light.

A 20-page letter sent by the House Oversight Committee to the Federal Trade Commission asserts that the franchise “may have engaged in a troubling, long-running and potentially unlawful pattern of financial conduct that victimized thousands of team fans and the National Football League.”

The allegations, based on testimony from former Washington sales executive Jason Friedman, include:

• Withholding security deposits from fans and using the funds for other purposes. (About $5 million was withheld from roughly 2,000 accounts.)
• Misreporting Commanders tickets sales as revenue from a Notre Dame–Navy game at FedEx Field and a Kenny Chesney concert (thus excluding those earnings from the NFL’s revenue-sharing program).
• That Snyder was aware of the scheme. According to the letter, Friedman said “the team maintained ‘two sets of books’—one that was shared with the NFL but underreported certain ticket revenue, and another internal set of books that included the complete and accurate revenue and was ‘shown to Mr. Snyder.’”
• That such misrepresentations were known internally as “juice” and that members of senior leadership, including Snyder, encouraged the practice.

The franchise has denied the allegations.

Conor Orr wrote when the allegations of financial impropriety first surfaced that they could be the reason the NFL finally forces Snyder out. Essentially, the league doesn’t care as much about women being harassed as it cares about money. If Friedman’s claims can be substantiated, then it’s unlikely Snyder’s fellow owners would tolerate him having taken money directly out of their pockets. One of the only ways to get kicked out of the old boys club is to screw over the other guys in the club.

Forcing Snyder to sell the team would be a godsend to Washington fans, employees and anyone else who can’t stand what a pathetic jerk he is. Sending such a widely despised weasel packing would be great for the NFL for obvious reasons, but Orr also points out a less obvious reason his ouster could benefit the league: It would open the door for the NFL to address its glaring lack of diversity in the ownership ranks and perhaps welcome its first Black owner. Or maybe Jeff Bezos would just buy the team.

The best of Sports Illustrated

In today’s Daily Cover, Tom Verducci got Juan Soto to break down what makes him, in Verducci’s words, “the greatest hitting prodigy since Ted Williams.”

“​​There is another tool that makes Soto such an outlier: his mind. His ability to decode pitchers and the spin of a baseball is so unusual that Johnny DiPuglia, the Nationals scout who signed Soto, calls it ‘UFO stuff.’”

Ben Pickman shadowed Rhyne Howard on the night she became the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft. … After sitting out for 941 days, Klay Thompson is finding his rhythm again, Chris Herring writes. … The latest episode of SI Weekly features Chris Mannix and Howard Beck previewing the NBA playoffs.

Around the Sports World

The Timberwolves went on a 16–2 run in the fourth quarter (without Karl-Anthony Towns) to knock off the Clippers in the play-in tournament. … The Nets won the other play-in game behind a big night from Kyrie Irving. … Giants coach Alyssa Nakken became the first woman to appear in an on-field capacity in an MLB game. … The Timberwolves-Clippers game was disrupted by an animal rights protester who attempted to glue herself to the floor. … Reds president Phil Castellini told fans wishing his family would sell the team to “be careful what you wish for.” … LeBron James reportedly wants the Lakers to hire Mark Jackson as their next coach.

The top five...

… must-see MLB moments from yesterday:

5. The standing ovation Phillies fans gave Alec Bohm the day after he said “I ​​f------ hate this place”

4. The wild play featuring two rundowns that allowed the Braves to score a run

3. Albert Pujols’s first home run since returning to the Cardinals

2. Travis d’Arnaud’s reaction to getting hit by a pitch

1. Brett Phillips got a gift from a girl undergoing cancer treatment before yesterday’s game, said it would bring him good luck and then hit a home run while she was being interviewed live on TV. (It was only his 24th homer in six seasons. What are the odds?)

SIQ

On this day in 1926, Walter Johnson made his 14th and final Opening Day start for the Washington Senators and pitched his seventh Opening Day shutout. Johnson holds the all-time record for career shutouts. How many did he have?

• 87
• 98
• 110
• 124

Yesterday’s SIQ: On April 12, 1992, Boston’s Matt Young became the third pitcher in MLB history to accomplish what feat?

Answer: Throw a no-hitter and lose. There have been only five no-hitters thrown by a losing team in MLB history: Young’s, the Yankees’ Andy Hawkins in 1990, Ken Johnson of the Colt .45s in ’64 and combined efforts by the Orioles (Steve Barber and Stu Miller) in ’67 and Angels (Jered Weaver and José Arredondo) in 2008. Only Johnson’s and the combined Orioles no-no count as official no-hitters, though, because the other three games were won by the home team, meaning the pitchers had to throw only eight hitless innings.

Young’s (unofficial) no-hitter came in his first start of the 1992 season, facing Cleveland on the road. The first run he allowed was in the first, after issuing a leadoff walk to Kenny Lofton. Lofton stole second, and then third (on a strikeout) and scored when shortstop Luis Rivera made a throwing error on a groundball by Carlos Baerga. Walks got Young into trouble again in the third, when he issued free passes to the first two batters of the inning (Mark Lewis and Lofton). There were runners on second and third after a groundout and a steal, at which point Baerga grounded into a fielder’s choice and Lewis scored.

Young’s teammates answered in the top of the next inning to make it 2–1 but couldn’t get anything else going on offense and lost the game by that score.

“It’s irrelevant, because we lost the game,” Young said after the game. “A no-hitter’s supposed to be where you strike out the last guy and the catcher comes out and jumps in your arms. A loss is a loss.”

From the Vault: April 12, 2010

Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated

How unflappable is Tiger Woods? Just look at the big smile on his face while he holds a growling tiger.

No, that photo isn’t digitally altered. SI’s editors came up with a daring idea for Tiger’s cover shoot: have him pose with an actual tiger. And Woods actually agreed to do it. So an exotic animal trainer brought two 650-pound tiger cubs to Woods’s home country club outside Orlando and photographer Heinz Kluetmeier got to work shooting. It wasn’t exactly what SI’s picture editor for golf, Matt Ginella, had pitched to Tiger’s team, though, as a short item in the magazine detailed:

“Indeed, things seemed perfectly manageable until Dimitri, a royal Bengal, got an accidental goose from a handler and leaped at Kluetmeier, who, remarkably, hardly flinched. When Samson, a snow tiger, lost his footing a few moments later on the canvas photo backdrop and darted across the room toward Hoffman, our intrepid creative director bolted for the door. ‘At that point, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry,’ says Ginella. ‘Here I had painted for Tiger's agent, Hughes Norton, a picture of Tiger with a little kitty. We thought there was no way Woods would agree to sit with either of these big cats.’

But Woods was game. There was just one thing he refused to do: growl. No worries. Samson’s roar was enough to make a great cover image.

Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.