NFL owners unanimously approve sale of Commanders

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — NFL owners unanimously approved the sale of the Washington Commanders on Thursday from Dan Snyder to a group led by Josh Harris and including Magic Johnson for a record $6.05 billion.

All 32 team owners voted for the sale, which is the highest price paid for a North American professional sports team. After the finance committee approved the agreement with the new ownership group, Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, a special league meeting was called to consider and vote on it before the 2023 season begins.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones beamed as he walked off an escalator and headed toward the meeting room, granting a brief interview with reporters about the impending sale of his team’s division rival.

“It’s a hallmark day,” Jones said. “I’m excited about the prospects of going into Washington and giving them some capital punishment.”

Snyder had owned his favorite boyhood team since 1999, when he bought it for $800 million. Success was fleeting, both on and off the field. With Snyder in charge, the team made the playoffs just six times in 24 years, only twice won a postseason game and went 166-226-2 overall. The franchise has lost a significant amount of luster from the glory days under coach Joe Gibbs, who won three Super Bowls in his 12-year run from 1981-92.

Then there were the problems outside of football, from a feud with minority owners that led Snyder to buy out their shares of the team to allegations of sexual harassment by former employees, which prompted a series of investigations into workplace misconduct. Over and over again, Snyder said he would never sell the team.

The tide began to shift on that front last October when Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said there was “merit to remove” Snyder, an ouster that would have required votes from at least 24 of the other 31 clubs. Two weeks later, Snyder and his wife Tanya hired a firm to begin exploring a sale of part or all of one of the NFL’s oldest franchises — one that has called the nation’s capital home since 1937.

Ultimately, that process led to a group chaired by Harris. His investment crew also includes David Blitzer, with whom he co-owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, Washington-area businessman Mitchell Rales and more than a dozen others. The unusually large ownership group needed and received league finance approval for a deal that shattered the $4.35 billion Walmart heir Rob Walton paid last year for the Denver Broncos.

The special meeting for the Commanders sale was conducted at the same hotel adjacent to the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis where Walton’s group gained formal control of the Broncos.

Their biggest immediate challenge for the long-term future of the organization is a new stadium to replace FedEx Field, the rushed-to-completion home of the team since 1997 in Landover, Maryland, that has not aged well. Virginia abandoned a stadium bill more than a year ago, a consequence of the number of off-field controversies swirling around the team.

Jets have ‘Hard Knocks’ change of heart

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Robert Saleh and the New York Jets are fully tuned in now to their turn on “Hard Knocks.”

After making it clear last month the Jets would prefer to not be on the HBO documentary series this summer, Saleh showed up to his first news conference of training camp Thursday decked out in a black long-sleeved T-shirt that displayed his change of heart.

“I (green heart) HK” was printed on the Jets coach’s chest in white capital letters.

It’s all lights, cameras, action — and no hard feelings — now.

“Just talking with ‘Hard Knocks,’ they’ve got a great group of people working with us,” Saleh said after practice Thursday. “We expressed some of our concerns and they answered it. And, you know, it’s going to be fine.”

When the Jets were being discussed last month as the potential team to be featured on the series produced by HBO and NFL Films, Saleh and the Jets openly rooted against it.

TRADE: The New York Jets traded wide receiver Denzel Mims to the Detroit Lions. The Jets part ways with the disappointing 2020 second-round draft pick who requested to be dealt last summer. The Jets also sent a 2025 conditional seventh-round pick to the Lions for a conditional sixth-rounder in 2025 on Thursday.

VIKINGS: Minnesota Vikings first-round draft pick Jordan Addison was cited early Thursday for speeding and reckless driving, after a state trooper clocked him at 140 mph in his sports car in a 55 mph zone.