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Dan Snyder Explains His Washington City Paper Lawsuit In Washington Post Op-Ed

Months ago, the Washington City Paper’s Dave McKenna published a gigantic piece called “The Cranky Redskins Fan’s Guide To Dan Snyder,” a literal A-to-Z breakdown of all the reasons McKenna didn’t think too fondly of the Redskins owner.

Snyder himself wasn’t such a big fan of this piece, but bafflingly waited until months after its publication – by which time everyone would have moved on from the piece otherwise – and filed a lawsuit. Now, nearly three months after that, Snyder is explaining his reasoning behind the suit via a Washington Post op-ed. Suffice to say, Snyder will not win any more people to his side.

We’ll give him some credit – he’s getting better at critiquing the City Paper piece. Rather than go after ridiculous things like that the illustration where he’s made to look like the devil was anti-Semitic, Snyder’s main focus now seems to be a specific passage where McKenna says:

That’s the Dan Snyder who got caught forging names as a telemarketer with Snyder Communications…

Snyder called this the “most egregious” of “many examples” that supposedly constitute libel in the piece, saying:

That is a clear factual assertion that I am guilty of forgery, a serious crime that goes directly to the heart of my reputation — as a businessman, marketer and entrepreneur. It is false.

At least Snyder is now looking at a serious claim. Maybe – maybe – if McKenna had left it at that, Snyder might have something. The problem: the “forging” line isn’t the only time McKenna references the Snyder Communications incident in his piece. He says later:

Slamming: The illegal practice of switching a customer’s telephone service without authorization. Florida authorities fined Snyder’s pre-Redskins outfit, Snyder Communications, $3.1 million in 2001 after investigators uncovered more slamming in its offices than you’d find stagefront at a Limp Bizkit show.

And that, simply put, happened. If disputing the “forging” line is the best Snyder can do when that same claim is explained in greater detail later in the story, and if the City Paper indeed “offered Snyder the opportunity to publish a guest column responding to the article,” he doesn’t have much better of a case than anyone thinks he does. And we didn’t even mention this line from Snyder’s Post column yet (links ours):

I understand the anger people feel toward me when the Redskins have a losing season or when we sign a veteran player who does not meet expectations.

He’s just making it too easy.

Getty photo (Joe Murphy), via