There’s been a lot of celebration about Daniel Snyder selling the Washington Commanders over the last couple days, and a lot of vitriolic comments aimed at Snyder from our hosts and guests alike on both 980 The Team and 106.7 The Fan.
But Mark Schlereth, who played in DC from 1989-94 (before Snyder’s era) and won a Super Bowl with the team, may have taken the cake when he joined Craig Hoffman Friday – calling Snyder “a turd” and telling the outgoing owner he can “kiss my ass.”
The former came right out of the chute, as Schlereth was asked his opinion when he heard Snyder was selling the team to a Josh Harris-led group:
“I was so excited, because Dan Snyder in my opinion is a turd,” Schlereth said bluntly. “One of my life experiences is just to not be a turd, and that’s one thing I believe in. I’m so glad he is gone, and the Washington Commanders can experience new ownership. I love Ron Rivera, I think he’s a really good man and a great man to lead the franchise forward, but that organization deserves to be a crown jewel for the NFL, and they haven’t been since he took over ownership. Welcome back to the NFL, Washington Commanders, I’m excited for you.”
Later, the man affectionately known as “Stink” explained one particular interaction with Snyder that gave him the earlier belief, and led to the latter quote:
“I went to for Darrell Green’s 40th birthday party, we were both still playing in the league, and I was sitting next to Daniel Snyder at a table. He was asking me questions about free agent football players for 30 minutes, then got up and went to a corner of the room and made calls on his cell phone for 35 or 40 minutes,” Schlereth recalled. “He came back, and I jokingly asked if he had traded for me, and he just looked at me like ‘how dare you speak to me,’ turned his back to me, and didn’t speak to me for the rest of the evening. He can kiss my ass as far as I’m concerned."
That said, at least recently, Schlereth has had a good relationship with the franchise in terms of being an alumnus.
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“Recently, it’s been really good with Washington. I live in Denver and have a show here, so often times here I can step on some toes, because one thing about me is I’m blunt as a spoon, and sometimes organizations don’t like that,” Stink said. “But they’ve really made a huge effort under Jason Wright and Ron Rivera to really bring back the alumni and have them involved, which I appreciate. I’m thankful for that - often because of what I do for a living, I can be abrasive. But, when you had me as part of your org as a player, you expected 100 percent and for me to do my job without fail, so why would you expect any les from me as a member of the media?”
As a native of and host in Denver, Schlereth just went through a similar sale with the Broncos last year, and also had some thoughts on that process.
“I’ve watched them try to immerse themselves in the business, and they did a good job understanding that they don’t know football and reaching out to as many people as possible about the game,” Schlereth said. “When things weren’t going well here, then they started firing people, and since then, they’ve been talking about re-designing uniforms and asking fans about what’s important in a new stadium – working with the fan base to figure those things out. In my mind, they’ve made a lot of very smart decisions, hiring smart football people and empowering them – the latter of which is an issue Washington has had for a number of years now.”
You just have to listen to Schlereth’s entire interview with Hoffman above, as he also goes into the Commanders’ future on the field in the post-Snyder era - including his thoughts on Ron Rivera and Eric Bieniemy - and more!
Follow The Hoffman Show on Twitter: @CraigHoffman & @HoffmanShow
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