Media magnate Byron Allen is going to give NFL team ownership another try.
Allen is reportedly going to put in a bid to acquire the Washington Commanders franchise after its beleaguered owner, Daniel Snyder, buckled under public pressure to sell the team.
This move comes 10 months after Allen tried to acquire the Denver Broncos after being approached by both NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft about ownership. However, an investment group led by Robert Walton, whose family owns Walmart, won out with a $4.65 billion bid.
Snyder is being forced to relinquish control of the team after defiantly declaring that he would never sell the coveted franchise, much as he had resisted decades-old calls to rename the team from the Washington Redskins. The franchise is now called the Commanders.
From the Commanders: pic.twitter.com/TPBHtv4Xgg
— John Keim (@john_keim) November 2, 2022
A number of scandals involving racism and workplace toxicity helped to loosen the vice grip that Snyder once had on the Washington Franchise.
If Allen and his partners make a successful bid, he would be the first Black person to own a majority share of an NFL franchise in a league that is more than 60 percent Black.
As it stands, Mellody Hobson, the ultra-successful businesswoman and wife of Star Wars creator George Lucas, became the first Black person to even own a minority stake in any NFL franchise when she bought a piece of the Broncos.
